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Molly grinned. ‘What do I care? It wasn’t like I was beaten or starved or anything. As soon as I could fill a bowl with milk and cereal, I was fine.’

‘Your parents weren’t around?’

‘I couldn’t pick my dad out of a lineup. And my mum was just a person with better things to do than parent her child,’ Molly said casually.

But Ashley didn’t take it lightly. ‘That sounds hard.’

That seemed suspiciously like pity, so Molly tried to lighten things up. ‘It had its upside. When no one cares what you do, you can do whatever you want. It’s freeing.’

Ashley didn’t look convinced. Molly felt suddenly too aware of herself. Her hands. What should she do with them? What had she been doing with them before? They were just kind of in the air now. Molly cursed her own over-gesticulation.

She tried to place them beside herself, holding onto the edge of the mattress. Her grip was too tight.

Ashley’s knee knocked hers by accident and moved quickly away.

‘It’s late,’ Ashley said. It wasn’t a question.

‘I guess it is,’ Molly said.

What else could she say? Ashley had said the thing people say before they leave, and Molly couldn’t let that be a biggie. So she waited, nonchalantly, for Ashley’s excuse, maybe a request for her number, and the inevitable exit.

But Ashley didn’t move to stand. She didn’t slap her thighs and say, ‘Right.’ She was looking at her feet. They looked back up at her and did nothing.

A taxi went past outside. Loud for a second, then gone. And Ashley still wasn’t moving.

Molly looked at Ashley, her eyebrows raised. Ashley held her eye.

And Molly knew Ashley wasn’t leaving.

Now the question became which one of them would take this further?

Molly made the call. She would take the lead. She had to. She wanted Ashley. She couldn’t leave it up to chance. If she kept waiting, Ashley might still leave.

‘Come here,’ Molly said with a half-smile.

Ashley looked nervous, but she began to inch carefully closer. The bed dipped. Their knees touched fully this time, and neither of them fought it.

Molly lifted her hand, hesitating only briefly. Be confident. That was important, the confidence. That was why people liked Molly: because she moved easily and certainly through life. She didn’t fret or think too hard. She said what she wanted to say. She did what she wanted to do. She succeeded or failed on those terms alone. Ashley would need that from her, too.

Molly touched Ashley’s jaw, caressing the soft skin. Ashley went still, waiting. Molly leaned in, and Ashley met her halfway.

The kiss was tentative only in its opening seconds, as though both of them were checking that this was real. That neither had imagined the other, or this strange connection that had come out of nowhere on this crazy night.

Then Ashley pushed forward with a small moan, and something inside Molly gave way. It was as if she’d been holding herself together for years without ever realising it, and now all that effort simply dissolved. She fell into something deep, endless.

For the first time in what felt like forever, she didn’t have to be Molly, with everything that name carried. There was only Ashley. The warmth of her mouth. The gentle pressure of her lips. The scent of her vanilla shampoo as Molly pulled her closer.

Molly’s hand slid deep into her hair. Ashley made another sound, deeper this time—a low, breathless moan of pure pleasure that made every hair on Molly’s body stand on end.

Where the hell did this woman come from? Molly found herself asking. And how did I get here with her? In the space of a single evening, she’d gone from letting her most annoying housemate drag her to a local gig to dangerous levels of investment in a total stranger.

Molly had spent years convincing herself that nothing could get under her skin. She was the easy one. The uncomplicated one. The one who could make a joke out of anything before it became serious enough to hurt. What the hell was happening?

Ashley seemed to sense the existential crisis brewing. She drew back slightly and asked, ‘You okay?’

Molly opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

Ashley laughed softly. ‘The first time tonight you’ve had no joke at the ready.’