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‘What do we do?’ she asks me with knitted eyebrows.

‘Yes,’ I answer, still smiling as my mind wanders. Oliver has such a great body. I have a flashback to him touching me inappropriately, only a few minutes ago. I wonder if we’ll do it on this very couch. On this carpet. My eyes roam the office for bits of furniture we might have sex on.

‘What do we do?’ Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen asks again. ‘We have booked people on to a coach trip. Where are you taking them?’

Gaaah! But she’s right. And also, wrong.

‘It’s we and it’s less of a trip and more of an experience. A Life Coach Experience.’

I have literally told her a hundred times.

‘Sounds interesting,’ Ava says.

No. It really doesn’t.

‘Leave it with me,’ I say. I’ll sort it out later. I have some daydreaming about Oliver’s lips to do.

* * *

A while later, I wander through to reception to see my sister sitting next to Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen behind the desk. They are giggling away like old friends. I can see they have Ryan Reynolds’s Instagram up on the screen. He is lounging on a bed wearing a tuxedo and a pair of shiny shoes. Aesthetically, it makes no sense and yet it works.

‘What is going on?’ I bark as they leap to attention. ‘This is a professional place of work, not a girly catch-up. What next? Bottomless brunch?’

‘I’m sorry, Mees Weston,’ says Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen, but she is interrupted by Ava.

‘It’s not her fault. I asked her to show me the ropes.’

‘Show. You. The. Ropes?’ I ask incredulously.

Ava lifts her chin and smiles broadly. ‘Yes, I’m training to be a life coach. I thought you knew.’

My scowl is all the answer she needs.

‘Seeing as you are the boss, I thought I’d learn from the best,’ Ava says, a slight shake in her voice. Nice try, but she’s not going to win me over that easily.

‘Did you now?’ I say, folding my arms and glaring at her. There is no way on earth that I am going to train my own back-stabbing sister up to be my competition, even if I were the boss, which I’m not. Besides, I’ve literally only been doing it for a couple of days, and I’m not even qualified to do that. Also, things are already complicated enough.

‘I can help you. I bring a lot to the table in terms of skills and experience.’

She thinks she can help me to sort out the business? SHE can help ME to sort out the business? SHE! SHE! I see what she’s doing. Trying to take over.

‘So, did Mum ring you this morning?’ she asks, changing the subject.

I know her game. I bet she bleated on all day yesterday about how awful I was. Boohoo, isn’t my sister terrible? Well, two can play at that. I nod stiffly.

‘I told her not to interfere,’ she tells me. ‘I know you are still very angry with me and quite understandably so.’

What? Am I hearing her right?

‘I am more than prepared to do anything to win back your trust and earn your forgiveness.’

Holy feckers. This sounds almost like an apology. The apology.

‘Furthermore,’ she continues solemnly, ‘to prove that I am serious, I am going to turn my life around. Starting with how to fix our relationship.’

This takes me completely by surprise. I’m not even sure what to say as she hands me a coffee and looks me right in the eye. She seems genuine. She’s got tears in her eyes, and her voice is wobbly.

‘I’m building to an effective apology,’ she explains to Maria-José-Inmaculada-Carmen.