Lyn had become the Other Woman—an event not listed on her five-year plan.

To: Lyn

From: Nana

Subject: A little suggestion

Dearest Lyn,

I hear that you’re having Christmas lunch at your place this year. Well done to you, darling. I wonder if your father and I could come too. He seems to have broken up with that little foreign girl and he is very down at the moment. He’s not like himself. I hear you’re planning a seafood theme. That sounds lovely. I could bring a nice leg of lamb for you. I’m not sure how your mother would feel about Frank coming, but he assures me they are on good terms these days. What do you think? How is Maddie? Gemma tells me she can sing all the words to the Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. She is a very intelligent child. She takes after you and your sisters. With much love from Nana

To: Nana

From: Lyn

Subject: Christmas Day

Dear Nana,

Of course you and Dad can come to Christmas lunch. The more the merrier! (I checked with Mum and she agrees that she and Dad can speak civilly to each other these days. Miracles will never cease!) You will be pleased to learn that Maddie can now sing all the words to the Pizza Hut commercial as well. She’s working her way through all the major fast-food groups. Mum is horrified. Love from Lyn

To: Cat

From: Lyn

Subject: The Dan Issue

Hi Cat,

I wish you would stop hanging up on me. We can’t avoid each other for the rest of our lives. I don’t know what Dan has told you but here are the facts.

After we left the pub that Melbourne Cup Day you said kissing that boy was like kissing an ashtray and if he called you there was no way you would go out with him.

I met Dan again by accident two days later at the Greenwood with Susi. (He thought I was you at first.) Dan asked me to go out. I said yes. I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T INTERESTED—see above.

I didn’t tell you because we weren’t talking at the time. I can’t remember why. (Some fight about money on the way home in the cab from the Cup? Gemma’s fault probably.)

We went out about three times. It was only a couple of weeks before I was leaving for London. It was certainly not a relationship.

The first time I realized you two were serious was at Marcus’s funeral, which was hardly the right time to say anything.

Then I got all distracted with Michael and next thing I knew, you and Dan were engaged and it just seemed so irrelevant and stupid.

It was over ten years ago, Cat. I am really, really sorry that you’re upset. But it meant nothing. Can we just forget about it? Can you call me? What do you want for Christmas?

Lyn

To: Lyn

From: Cat

Re: The Dan Issue

I want something very, very expensive for Christmas.

Cat

Lyn looked at her computer screen and smiled. Good. Cat was sounding like herself again. She drew a straight line through Talk to C. re D.

Hopefully that was it. In a strange way, it had made her feel as if she was somehow involved in their marriage problems, as if she and Dan had cheated on Cat, which was ridiculous of course.

It was just three dates. Three dates, a long time ago, in another world, another time. All was fair back in the early nineties. Before the AIDS prevention ads started to seem scary, not funny, before the Kettle girls started settling down.

Lyn had a sudden, unexpectedly vivid memory of lying on Dan’s bed, in his messy, boy-smelling room. “Do you like it when I do this? Seems like you do, huh? What about this?”

Did she like it just that bit more because she knew deep down Cat had been lying when she said wasn’t interested? Who wouldn’t be interested? He was gorgeous. No long-term potential, of course, but very sexy.

God, she hadn’t thought about that for years. She’d better stop it, or she’d blush next time she saw the cheating bastard.

It was later that night and Lyn stood at the bathroom mirror applying her moisturizer with upward patting motions. She looked straight ahead at her own reflection, trying to avoid the sight of Michael cleaning his teeth. It baffled her how much it annoyed her. He was just so enthusiastic about the whole procedure, sawing vigorously away at his gums, toothpaste frothing over his upper lip. For the first time it occurred to her to wonder whether it had irritated Georgina too.

“Do you know we’ve been together now for as long as you and Georgina were?” she said, as he bent down, mercifully finished, to rinse his mouth.

“Have we?” Michael dried his mouth with a towel.

“Yes,” said Lyn. “So are you going to be unfaithful to me now?” There was a harder note in her voice than she’d wanted.

Michael put down the towel. “No,” he said carefully. “No, that wasn’t actually my intention.”

“Pfffff,” said Lyn. “I guess it wasn’t your intention to be unfaithful to Georgina either.”

Michael leaned against the bathroom door. “Is this to do with the whole Cat and Dan thing?” She didn’t say anything. “Is it Kara? This morning’s teenager from-hell-performance?”

“It’s nothing. It was a joke.”

“Didn’t sound like one.”

Lyn put away her moisturizer and Michael’s toothpaste. She walked past him into their bedroom. He snapped off the light and followed her.

Without speaking, they pulled back the quilt, climbed into bed, and took their books from their bedside tables. They lay side by side on their backs and held their books in front of them.

After a few seconds, Michael suddenly put his book flat down on his chest.

“Do you remember the first time we went camping together?”

Lyn kept looking at her book. “Yes.”

“I remember waking up that first morning and seeing you next to me in your sleeping bag, all curled up, and I felt so…so pleased to see you. It was like the feeling you got when you were a kid and you had a friend stay the night. While you were sleeping you’d forget he was there and then you’d wake up and see him sleeping on the mattress on the floor and you’d remember and you’d feel all happy. You’d think, Oh that’s right, good old Jimbo’s here—we’re gonna have fun today!”

Lyn went to speak and he put his hand on her arm to stop her.

“My point is I can’t remember ever once feeling that way with Georgina. Even during our supposedly good times. Our very worst times are still ten times better than the very best times I had with Georgina. When you and I first got together, I remember thinking, Bloody hell, why did nobody tell me it could be this good?”