Mia leaned against the letterbox, out of breath, but feeling great for the first time in days. Going for a long run always had that effect on her. There was something so calming about the rhythmic pattern her body fell into that she would forget about all the things that were worrying her. Well, there was just one thing that concerned her at the moment, but it had been playing on her mind the entire week. Tonight, the gang was meeting up for dinner again, and she was going to have to spend the whole evening in the same room as Johnny. That, in itself, wasn’t such a bad thing. Mia quite liked being in close proximity to Johnny. In fact, she liked it a lot. However, the disastrous date that Nick had taken her on – to Johnny’s restaurant, no less – still lingered in her mind. It was the night that insidious girl had draped herself over Johnny like a cheap accessory, refusing to budge. Not that Johnny had seemed to mind and, based on the stories she’d heard, it was an all-too-common occurrence.

Mia untied the key from her shoelace and let herself into the house quietly so as not to wake the others. She needn’t have worried, though. The smell of coffee wafting through the house told her they were already up and about.

“I can’t believe you’ve already been for a run,” groaned Willow sleepily. “You put us all to shame.” She gestured to the coffee pot on the stove. “Want one?”

“Please,” said Mia gratefully.

“How far did you get?” Ana looked much more awake than Willow and was dressed in her yoga clothes, ready for her Saturday morning class.

“About 15 kilometres,” said Mia, helping herself to a glass of water.

Ana and Willow looked at each other. They had known that something was up for a while now, but they didn’t know that it was that bad. All the girls had a release – an activity that they defaulted to when things got a bit much. For Ana it was Champagne (not technically an activity, but somehow Ana managed to turn it into one), for Willow: baking, and for Mia: excessive exercise. At least with baking and Champagne everyone could benefit, but the exercising just made the others feel guilty about their own vices. For this reason, as much as to support their friend, her housemates tried extra hard to snap Mia out of it when she was down.

“So, what’s up?” Ana asked, her tone light.

“Nothing” said Mia, looking surprised. “Why?”

“You’re just… exercising. A lot.”

Mia laughed. “Oh that. Umm, I’ve got an assessment coming up at work and need to train for it.” The absolute last thing she wanted was for Ana and Willow to know the truth.

Ana was sceptical, but if Mia didn’t want to talk about it there wasn’t much they could do.

“What are we cooking for dinner tonight?” asked Mia, changing the subject.

Willow was suddenly awake. “I was thinking apple pie for dessert. I found this great recipe the other day.” She paused. “But there’s a catch.”

Ana and Mia looked at her. How could there be a downside to delicious, homemade apple pie?

“I can’t go to the market and I need lots of apples,” Willow said, sheepishly.

Although Willow had put on a very brave face, she still wasn’t quite ready to confront Carlo on his territory just yet. She was happy going to the market during the week, but on Saturday there was a high probability that she would run into him and she really, really wanted to avoid that.

“I’ll go,” said Mia.

Willow gave her friend a huge hug, letting go quickly. “Gross. You’re all sweaty,” she said playfully.

***

Mia was pulling wine glasses down from the kitchen cupboard when Johnny arrived. The positive feeling that she had managed to maintain for the majority of the day dissipated. He walked into the kitchen and deposited a couple of bottles of wine on the bench, opening a red straight away to let it breathe.

“Hi Mia.” His voice gave no hint of anything.

“Hi Johnny.”

They looked at each other for a moment before Johnny turned on his heel and left the room, mumbling something about helping to set the table.

Well, thought Mia, bitterly, that went well.

When they sat down to dinner, Johnny and Mia positioned themselves as from each other as they could. The others barely noticed them going drink for drink, hardly touching their food and scowling like a couple of teenage boys forbidden from playing Xbox.

When Johnny eventually spoke, his voice dripped with disdain. “So, how was the rest of your date?”

“Oh yeah,” exclaimed Tom, oblivious. “The mystery date. Where did he end up taking you?”

Before Mia could answer, Johnny jumped in. “You didn’t hear?” He picked up a bottle of red and emptied the contents into his glass, not even tasting it as he took a swig. “We had the pleasure of waiting on the two lovebirds at Medina.”

“Well maybe you can fill us in on the date,” teased Willow, “Because Mia won’t tell us anything.”

Mia grabbed another bottle of wine and opened it, filling her own glass to the brim. “Why don’t you tell them about your friend instead, Johnny?” Mia glared at him, fire in her eyes.

“Hey, save some of the wine for the rest of us.” Willow proffered her glass for a refill.

Mia obliged, speaking to the table as she poured. “Johnny wouldn’t have noticed how my date went,” she said. “He was too busy babysitting.”

“I was not,” Johnny snorted, incredulous.

“She was young enough to be your daughter,” Mia shot back.

“I would have thought you were too busy making googly eyes to notice anything else.”

“It was impossible not to notice. You were all over each other.”

“What do you care, anyway? You seemed pretty happy with Mr Boring.” Johnny put his wine glass to his lips and frowned when he realised there was nothing left in it; he could have sworn he had just filled it.

Mia walked around the table and snatched the bottle from him, slopping wine on the tablecloth as she topped herself up, she too having finished her glass in record time. “He’s not boring. At least he can have a conversation about something other than… Barbie dolls.”

As the verbal barbs continued, Willow, Ana and Tom looked on, bemused. From a spectator point of view, it was like watching a tennis match. Johnny and Mia didn’t even notice the table being cleared around them, or the arrival of Willow’s amazing dessert, which was cut and placed in front of them.

Mia stabbed her spoon into the flaky pastry, a spiral of steam escaping from the pie. She gave Johnny a withering look. “You wouldn’t even be capable of having a proper relationship, anyway.”

Johnny ignored the pie in front of him, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. “You wanna bet?”

“Yes.”

“You’re on.”

They glared at each other for another second before Willow interrupted their thoughts.

“How are you going to prove it?” she said, her mouth full of dessert.

“What?” Mia turned to her, as if only just aware that there were other people in the room.

“The bet. How are you going to prove that Johnny is or isn’t capable of having a proper relationship?”

Mia and Johnny looked at each other. They could both think of one way, but neither of them was going to suggest that.