CG 18.27: Where are you?

AS 18.32: Just leaving. Sorry! Minor crisis occurred while I was getting my coat.

CG 18.33: Are you ever on time?

AS 18.40: No. Neither are you. Getting in car now.

CG: 18.42: See you soon.

As she was stopped at the first of what she assumed would be five thousand red lights – because she never caught a break when she was late – Ana checked her appearance in the rear-view mirror of the purple smart car Christian always teased her for having. She wasn't a complete disaster today, although her dark hair was piled on her head held in place with a band that threatened to break from the thickness of it and she quickly took it down realising she hated it. She rolled her eyes at herself for being so changeable – she'd thought it was nice that morning.

The beeping from the car behind indicated she had zoned out enough to miss the light changing and she quickly started driving again, pulling an embarrassed face as she did. Christian's apartment was only ten minutes from her gallery even with the lights working against her.

She punched in the code she knew by heart for the basement parking. It took her two tries to back into the space without being on the line. Ana hated that she was such a terrible driver. She checked her phone as she rushed to the elevator which was about to leave, and in a rare turn of luck she managed to get in and smiled at Christian's neighbour, an old lady who she saw frequently but never remembered the name of. She always meant to ask Christian. She checked her phone as she was fairly confident it had buzzed while she was driving.

MB 18.51: What time are you home tonight?

AS: 19.01: Dinner with Christian, home at 10, 11 latest.

MB: 19.01: Have fun!

Ana let herself in with the key Christian had given her. She had been very pleased that she had earned a key until she had found out that he only gave it to her because her habit of ringing the doorbell three times in a row irritated him so much.

"Ana!" She heard a small voice exclaim and she smiled as she shut to door behind her and found herself staring into the overly lavish living room that belonged to her best friend. She had been there hundreds of times now, but she was still impressed by the extravagance of his three-story penthouse. Of course it was completely unnecessary, only two of them lived there.

"Hi, sweetie!" Ana said as she felt two little arms grabbing hold of her leg. She laughed and lifted up the little girl hanging on to her and hugged her close. She heard footsteps and looked over to the doorway, still grinning, eyes locking on the figure that stood there.

"Ana."

"God, you always seem so much less pleased to see me than Evie does." Ana complained mockingly, rolling her eyes at him. Evie giggled and copied her as she played with Ana's long hair with one small, chubby hand.

"Stop teaching her bad habits." Christian walked into the room and Ana put his daughter down so she could give him a hug that he had long since stopped trying to reject. The pair sat down together on the sofa and Ana let Evie clamber onto her lap where she sat quite happily.

"That's never going to happen. I like being a bad influence, it's why she likes me so much." Ana said as she fished a bag of the alphabet sweets that she was so fond of out of her purse and popped an 'S' into her mouth and looked to Christian for silent approval before shaking the bag a little so she could present Evie with an 'E'. The three year old clapped. Christian knew Ana had to special order those sweets from England. She would never share them with him, but she loved his daughter deeply and would never dream of not sharing them with her.

"She likes you because she gets sweets before bedtime from you." Christian said shaking his head. "Speaking of which, are you putting her to bed or taking over the cooking?"

"I'll put her to bed, you cook ridiculously complicated dishes and I'll only burn it if I try to take over now." Christian didn't argue with her, they both knew she could only cook if a dish had three ingredients or less. He stood from the couch and kissed his daughter on the top of her head.

"Goodnight sweetheart."

"Night night Daddy!" Evie said, giving him a little wave as he walked into the kitchen.

Ana took her into the bathroom and brushed her teeth gently, then went into the bedroom and dressed the little girl in the yellow duck printed pyjamas that she had bought her a few weeks ago before she put her in the little bed that was tucked against the wall of her purple room, the one Ana had helped to paint with Christian while his very pregnant wife had sat in the rocking chair calling out baby names that she was fond of. They had decided on Evelyn when she and Christian had been in the middle of doing the ceiling and a blob of paint fell next to it in the book. After chastising the pair for being clumsy, Vivienne had called it a sign. Christian wrote it off as Ana's lack of DIY skills. Ana had laughed and said it was probably both. They'd told her they wanted her to be the godmother when they went out to dinner that night.

She missed Vivienne badly on nights like this, when she put to bed the little girl that knew her, a family friend, better than she had ever known her mother. Ana kissed Evie on the top of her head. The little girl was dozing off already, she always did the second her head touched the pillow. As she left the room she wiped away the little tear that had formed under her eye and marched into the kitchen holding her head high.

"Red or white wine?" she asked loudly to announce her presence. Christian looked around.

"White, we're having chicken." Ana nodded and took one off the wine rack. She didn't care what one it was, all the wine he kept was expensive and delicious. She popped the cork and left it on the sideboard to breathe, he was always telling her off for pouring it too early. Ana didn't know enough about wine to taste the difference. "Would you get me the plates out?" Christian asked her, and she had to smile at his politeness. She took two plates out of the cupboard and while he dished the chicken onto them both she plated the vegetables and potatoes. The pair smiled at each other as they carried their plates to the table and sat opposite each other. They never bothered to use the dining room.

"How's work?" Ana asked him as they took their seats. He smiled, knowing full well she didn't want to be bored by the intricacies of it. She took a mouthful of the food while he spoke.

"It's going well at the moment. I had to take Evie in yesterday because her nanny was ill – safe to say she is far more popular than me around the office." Ana chuckled and complimented his cooking before she responded to what he said.

"That doesn't surprise me at all, Evie is much nicer than you and she probably yells at them less."

"I don't yell at my employees Ana, I merely correct their mistakes."

"Loudly while threatening to fire them."

"The message doesn't sink in otherwise." Ana smiled and shook her head at him.

"I'm just saying, if I spoke to my artists the way you speak to your employees I would have a revolution on my hands."

"I've heard you yelling at people for missing deadlines."

"Well okay, sometimes maybe. Definitely less than you do." Christian chuckled and she took another bite as she tried to refrain from rolling her eyes at him. This was just how they were, how they always had been, familiar, happy to sit and chide at each other without either of them taking the remarks to heart.

"How's Michael?" Ana smiled to herself. Christian was always polite enough to ask after her boyfriend even though when he had met him he hadn't liked him at all. Very rarely did he like any of the boyfriends she had, something Ana was convinced her had learnt off Vivienne who had always found a fault with them before Ana did.

"I think he's going to propose." Christian raised his eyebrows.

"Well that's a first." he commented, not giving away anything other than surprise which Ana supposed was warranted. Over the few years that she had known him she tended to have very short relationships, easily finding unsolvable problems with the men she chose and kicking them to the kerb. He had been very surprised when Ana announced she was moving in with Michael a few months ago. Ana thought he maybe should have seen this coming since she was genuinely serious about this one. "Are you going to say yes?"

"I suppose so. But I don't know. I'm happy the way things are, and I'm not sure I want to get married at all but I think it might be important to him..." Ana realised she was rambling but to his credit Christian was attentively listening to every work. "Thinking about it is very stressful."

"You don't have to marry him, Ana."

"I'm aware. And when I remember how excited Vivienne was when she realised you were proposing to her I definitely have doubts. I mean, she was thrilled, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she was going to say yes to you." They were at a place now where they could mention Vivienne without it feeling uncomfortable.

"But you've never been like that with relationships, Ana." Christian reminded her. "Vivienne was completely enamoured with the idea of marriage and being in love, her life revolved around it. It's only natural for you to feel differently about this because for you having somebody to spend your life with is far lower on your list of priorities. For you it's a nice addition to your life but you're never going to allow your life and your happiness to depend on another person."

"You've known me too long." Ana complained with a small grin spreading over her face.

"No, you're just a very easy person to get a read on. Would you like seconds?" Ana looked down at her mostly empty plate and gave him a look.

"Christian, the day I say no to more food is the day you know something is seriously wrong with me." He laughed and collected both of their plates and brought them back through with slightly smaller portions than they had had before. Ana didn't feel too guilty about eating like a pig – Christian was an excellent cook and she had been so busy that day that she had forgotten to eat lunch (something she would have pretended to have done anyway to make herself feel better). Her phone buzzed and she picked it up, happy to see it was a message from Kate.

KK 20.55: Do you still want to grab lunch tomorrow? Book is stressing me out!

"Have you heard from her recently?" Christian asked as he laid the plate in front of her and sat back in his seat. Ana was busy responding with an affirmative and not really paying attention.

"Yeah, I'm texting her now." Ana put her phone down and saw him frowning as realisation dawned on her. "Wait, I thought you meant Kate but obviously you meant…" Christian nodded. "I'm not texting her now!" Ana assured him quickly. "I'm texting Kate about lunch. No, I haven't heard from her for like three months. Last I heard she was in Belgium."

"Belgium." Christian repeated, as though trying out the word for the first time. Ana smiled at him apologetically. "I've never even been to fucking Belgium." he hissed as he jabbed his plate with the knife, making Ana jump. He saw her discomfort and looked guilty immediately. "Sorry, Ana."

"It's hard. I understand." She took his hand and squeezed it. Ana had never been excellent at comforting people but she hoped it helped somewhat.

"Let's talk about anything else." Christian suggested and she thought that was a very good idea.

Ana always washed up after they had dinner because it meant she got to pick what they listened to and even though Christian insisted that he had a 'wide taste in music' he only ever seemed to make her listen to some classical piece which wasn't fun to dance to. Today she selected The Darkness because 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' had been in her head since she woke up. Christian didn't mime the guitar solo the way she did but he hummed along and she took that as a sign of his enjoyment. He never quite got as into things as she did. It was probably for the best.

She kissed him on the cheek when she left saying: "Text me if you need a babysitter and let me know when you're free next week." Ana knew he would take her up on the second offer, never the first mainly because he didn't go anywhere. 'She has one absentee parent, I'm not going to be another one' Christian had told her when she asked why he never took her up on the offer, insisting it wouldn't bother her. It was strange that before Vivienne had given birth she had worried about Christian as a father, not because he wouldn't love his daughter but because he was always so busy. Ana's lack of faith had been placed in the wrong friend entirely and she actually felt a little guilty about that. There was Christian, doing his best to provide for his daughter while still making sure he was home as much as he could be and Vivienne was prancing around Belgium without even thinking of them.

Ana drove home; the only CD she had in her car was a Carrie Underwood one that she had bought years ago but she was quite happy to sing loudly and out of key to Jesus Take the Wheel.