“Everything’s fine,” she answered, and jerked her head towards Tess. “You tell him Tess. I hear you and Fin are practically living together.”

The blonde smiled without showing her teeth and bobbed her wavy hair twice before placing her lips around the straw and consuming her cocktail. Cat became aware at once that something was going on with Tess. Were things not going well with her girlfriend? No, that didn’t seem to be the case; Fin had her arm slung over the back of the chair, and Tess was comfortably snuggled against the woman’s body. It was as if they belonged together. What was it, then?

Sam returned from the bar, carrying a beer and a glass of white wine. She sat at her left, next to Fin. Cat thanked her and placed the glass of wine on the table, without drinking from it; as it was, it was hard enough to settle into the conversation. Ed was describing several aspects of his book that his editor believed he needed to change; he had been instructed to leave an open ending so that a sequel could be written, if needed – if ‘Rings of Rhea’ was the phenomenon everybody expected it to become.

“And they could make it into a movie,” Fin said. “They’re practically making every book into a movie now.”

“Yeah, the bloke I met up with told me that was definitely a possibility.”

“And you know bloody well who should play the girl-alien,” Tess said, shaking a fist before Ed’s face in mock menace.

“I don’t think I can do much about it, Tess.”

Cat smiled at her brother’s undying devotion to Tess. She felt a wet kiss on her cheek and turned to look at Sam, who raised her eyebrows in that cute way, wordlessly checking up on her, always wanting to know if something was worrying her. It had to do with her gentle nature, but it was killing Cat. She did not deserve such goodness, such care, but there was no way she could voice out those concerns; all she could do was return the kiss.

“Hey everyone, sorry I’m late.”

Oh God. Cat bent her head back and found herself looking at Frankie from a strange angle. Beside her, Jay whooped and clapped his hands, welcoming the newcomer. He slid to his right to make room for the blonde. At the same time, Sam made the same movement, so that Frankie would sit between her and Fin. Crammed against Sam and with a space to her right, Cat did not know what to pray for. The skinny blonde gave an indeterminate wave and dumped her leather jacket next to Sam. Really? Then, after asking if anybody wanted anything more to drink, she slowly made her way to the bar.