`Can you get a move on? You're blocking the door and the play's starting in a couple of minutes!' The impatient voice behind her jerked Kate out of her trance and she looked quickly away from Luke.

'Oh-er-sorry,' she muttered as she hurried to catch up with Serena.

She had been enjoying the play, but she sat through the second half without hearing a word. Seeing Luke again after all these years had left her feeling edgy and unsettled. She tried to concentrate on the stage, but her mind was tugged back irresistibly to that hot afternoon and the woods and how it had felt when Luke had pulled her round into his arms.

Suddenly Kate became aware of a storm of applause around her, and, as Serena gave her an odd look, hastily began to clap. There was no point in dwelling on the past, she told herself, still thinking about Luke. It had been a remarkable coincidence, seeing him here tonight, but it was unlikely that she would ever see him again.

Even so, she couldn't help searching the crowds for a glimpse of him as they left the theatre, slowing her steps deliberately until Serena asked her what the matter was.

`Nothing,' said Kate, quashing a feeling of inexplicable disappointment. He must have gone already.

`You're awfully quiet,' Serena said suspiciously.

`My contact lenses are killing me,' Kate lied as they headed towards the Underground. `It was so smoky in that bar.'

They flipped their season tickets open at the gate and joined the crowd filing down the escalators. `How's the job hunting going?' Serena asked, turning round from the step below to look up at Kate. `Have you managed to find what you want yet?'

Kate forced her mind back to the present and her most pressing need to find a job. `Not yet, but I've got an interview for tomorrow that sounds promising.' She rummaged in her handbag as they stepped off the escalator. `I've got the ad here. What do you think?'