The four of us were all friends but Anna and I were always closer and Bridget and Alice were closer to each other than to either of us. We were like two couples who liked to double date. We saw each other fairly regularly but I’d not seen anyone recently so we were well overdue for a night out. It wasn’t unusual for Fran to join our double dates but clearly things had changed. There was no way anyone was inviting Fran. Anna had filled in Alice and Bridget about what had happened with Charlie and me and both of them had tried to call but I just hadn’t been up to talking to them about it. We had all known each other long enough to accept these things about each other without holding a grudge. They knew that I wasn’t one for oversharing. Anna was always the one that, although she didn’t crave being center of attention, neither did she mind it. Alice and I would run in the other direction when Anna and Bridget would insist on being the first on the dance floor, the first one with their hands up in lectures, the first one to be PDAing with a stranger at the law school ball, not caring what anyone else thought.
