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‘Let me guess – looking for wedding centrepieces?’ the waitress asked as she placed the menus down in front of them. ‘They’re amazing. I keep finding myself tempted to pinch a couple. Didn’t you find that?’

‘We haven’t actually been into the exhibition yet,’ Holly said.

‘No? Well, you’re in for a treat. You’ll love it. I tried to bring my fiancé to have a look at them too,’ she said, flashing the ring on her finger. ‘Not that we can afford any of it, mind. I just wanted to have a look, but he wouldn’t come.’ She looked at Holly and grinned. ‘Guess you’ve got yours better trained than mine.’

‘Oh, he’s not mine. We’re not together,’ Holly said.

‘Oh! I just thought you said?—’

‘Can we get a bottle of water, please?’ Giles cut her off mid-sentence. ‘Sparkling.’

The waitress’s cheeks reddened. ‘Of course. Yes, sorry. I’ll get that for you now.’

As she scurried away, Holly glowered at Giles.

‘Well, that was incredibly rude,’ she said.

‘She was waffling on, and we don’t have time for that. It’s already three o’clock. I doubt the traffic will be any better on the way home.’

‘Remind me that next time I’m stuck on a long car journey with you, I need to take snacks. You’re worse than Hope when you’re hangry.’

Giles huffed, folding his arms, but a second later, he unfolded them again and stood up.

‘What are you doing now?’ Holly asked.

‘I need to go to the bathroom. Is that okay? When did you become so damn nagging?’

Holly felt her annoyance mingle with guilt as Giles walked away. She’d been right to call him out for being rude, but then, he had been the one to drive all the way here with no breaks. He was probably tired as well as hungry. And she hadn’t needed to question him about where he was going.

She glanced around the room but was surprised to find that Giles hadn’t walked towards the bathroom door. Instead, he was standing at the bar next to the waitress he had snapped at. Holly tried to work out what they were talking about – they were definitely talking – but the restaurant was far too busy to hear anything and a moment later, Giles was walking away, towards the bathroom, while the waitress was coming towards Holly with a bottle of sparkling water.

‘Thank you,’ Holly said as she took the glass. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy, but what did he just say to you? The man I’m with?’

‘Oh, he just apologised, that’s all. Said he’d had a bad couple of days and shouldn’t have taken it out on me. Also, he said I could look forward to a nice tip to make up for it, and I wasn’t to share it with the rest of the staff, as I was the only one he’d been rude to. To be honest, I’ve had people at this place say worse and not apologise, so… Anyway, I’ll come back in a minute to take your order.’

‘Thank you. Thank you very much.’

When Giles returned to the table, Holly didn’t say anything about the waitress. It was difficult to know what to say. They couldn’t possibly have moved to the stage in their friendship where they could only speak about the weather and the drive up, could they? Actually, speaking about the drive up would hardly be positive either, so that didn’t leave much.

Holly cleared her throat, deciding it was probably a safe bet to talk about Jamie and the others, when she noticed how the restaurant seemed to be getting quieter. She looked around, wondering if there was some reason, like someone bringing a cake out for a birthday, or perhaps a person on their knee proposing, when a voice rose above everyone else.

‘For crying out loud, is it really that difficult? Are you an idiot or something?’

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Every person in the restaurant was looking in the same direction, and what had previously been a warm and inviting atmosphere was suddenly hushed and nervous. Only one voice could be heard.

‘Did you hear what I said? I said, are you an idiot?’

The man was one of the few people not part of a couple, but with a small group of other men. They all appeared to be a similar age: early forties perhaps. His accent was from London, and though Holly couldn’t be sure, there was something about the way his words ran into one another that made her think he’d been drinking. The person he was speaking to was the waitress who had served them. The same waitress Giles had got annoyed with because she was continually talking. But she wasn’t now. Right now, she was standing where she was, shoulders back, as she fought, but failed, to stop her bottom lip from trembling.

‘I—’

‘Idiot? Did you hear what I said?’ The rest of his table chuckled, as if he had said the funniest thing in the world, while the rest of the restaurant remained deadly silent.

The waitress cleared her throat again, but no words came out.

Holly was too stunned to move. It was horrid enough seeing something like this anywhere, but in such a beautiful location full of people trying to enjoy some special time together, the man’s behaviour was absolutely disgusting.