She had never seen that girl before because surely a face like that was born to be remembered, a straight nose and long brown hair in a shining wave down to her waist dressed in a white shirt, red skirt and black blazer with heels she would have tripped in had she been wearing them.

Next came the slamming realisation that just for a second she had forgotten that Chase was gone and now her heart was broken all over again, for a moment this had been like watching Chase walk into a room with another girl, but it wasn't it was Cole and she had no idea what he was doing here, they hadn't spoken in three years and here he was.

"Who's that?" 

Andrew's sharp voice broke her out of her reverie as she gazed ahead like in front of her stood a dead person.

"Thats... thats.."

"Cole Roberts"

She jumped seeing that Cole was right next to them proffering a hand to Andrew and looking politely interested in their conversation, looking at him closely she could see his brown hair had lightened whether by the sun or from hair dye she didn't know, she didn't even want to know.

His eyes looked more bright than she had ever seen them and there were small lines around his eyes that weren't there before.

Brunette Girl was beaming around at the room like it was a fairytale palace and not an average cafe, and then suddenly she was back to that awkward date with Alex to the fighting and the jealousy and Florence was reminded of why she had left and why her life had been better without Cole in it.

"As in the Cole?"

Andrew was looking like he was on guard now, he'd straightened up and was eyeing Cole appraisingly.

"The very same, and you must be Andrew, Mrs Clarke hasn't stopped singing your praises has she Steph?"

Steph seemed delighted to once again be in the loop.

"Yes! You must be the famous Florence, me and your Mother volunteer at the same local hospice and she's always telling me about how proud she is of you and your new life, I'm Stephanie by the way"

Stephanie held out a hand which she took, Andrew seemed to be trying to form daggers with his eyes as she turned to him.

"Hi Andrew, this is weird like I know all about you but to you I'm basically a stranger"

She giggled, Stephanie was a giggler.

Andrew barely looked at her and seemed to disregard her attempt at making light of the situation.

Cooper arrived from where she had disappeared at the back brandishing a bottle which she handed to Amberly who began sucking enthusiastically.

"Oh hey Cole, Steph" she turned to both of them.

Um... Cooper had known about this Stephanie and hadn't thought to inform her?

But why should she be informed? She had no divine right to know anything.

This was going to be a night of cringing and regretting, she could tell.

Her parents arrived in the nick of time, Cole and Andrew seemed to be engaged in the most intense staring contest in the world, Cooper was jostling Amberly trying to make her drink more and Stephanie was reapplying lipliner seemingly oblivious to the palpable tension in the room.

She hugged her parents extra tight when they came to her noting the silvery hairs in her father's beard that hadn't been there last time.

They all sat down in weird pairings, Florence had begun to feel an undertone of annoyance at Andrew's behaviour, he was acting like a jealous toddler who wanted to cling onto his toy truck, but she had to force herself to think empathetically rather than start an argument, in his eyes Cole was a threat to their stability.

In her eyes Cole was just one complication that she didn't need.

She tried conveying this throughout dinner, laughing at Andrew's bad jokes, letting his steal her chips and staying close to him whilst avoiding Cole's eye.

She played with Amberly, chatted to her parents and joked with Cooper she even managed to compliment Steph's shade of lipstick.

And then came the moment, when their stomachs where full and the hearty laughter had died, Andrew stood up just as they had rehearsed.

"Thank you all for joining us today, Florence and I wanted to tell you as soon as we could, the thing is two days ago I asked her to marry me, this isn't something I take lightly we've talked about it for weeks and I am beyond delighted to tell you all that she said yes"

A gasp, a clatter, a shriek and wild clapping.

Slowly she studied everyone's expressions, her parents were looking pleasantly surprised, Cooper was the one who gasped she could tell by her gobsmacked expression, Stephanie had shrieked loudly and now looked like she was the one who was getting married she looked so excited.

Amberly seemed to have spontaneously decided that this was as good a time as any to break out into claps, her chubby arms waving in the air.

Cole was smiling, actually smiling, the two sides of his face split into the widest smile she had ever seen present on his face.

And it felt like she'd been slapped.

Andrew extended a hand to her and she pulled herself up smiling next to him feeling everyone's searching eyes on her, this was her happiness.

Later, when everybody was leaving Stephanie grabbed her arm.

"Hey I just wanted to say congratulations in private, you don't really know me but I've known you for a long time... and not just from your book I suppose now is the time to tell you, there isn't really a good time but I'm actually Cole's half-sister, I'm two years older than him, my dad and his are the same, we haven't really been too close over the years, I was always closer to Chase but after everything I decided to go and look for him and ended up here"

She had just been bowled over.

"But I just wanted to let you know in case you like assumed anything, I'm truly so glad for you so don't think I'm judging in anyway, you've always seemed like one of the bravest people I know, I used to call Chase sometimes when he was at the clinic, that's also why me and Cole didn't get along he felt like had trusted me more than him... that made the rift between us worse"

Always, just when she thought she couldn't be handed anything else to rip open the Chase wound, it was handed to her on a platter, the realisation that Chase hadn't belonged to her, that he'd been important to other people and had an importance in their lives.

This girl, Stephanie was his flesh and blood which made everything a hundred times better and worse at the same time, the one thing that she thought only she and Cole had shared had been their memories and love of Chase, and now she knew that wasn't true because the sadness in Stephanie's eyes mirrored the sadness she sometimes saw in the mirror sometimes.

Stephanie was taller than her but she still managed to effectively hug her, squeezing the living daylights out of her.

"Come to the wedding, please"

"I wouldn't miss it Florence, we'll see each other again I just know it"

Stephanie kissed her cheek and then gave her an elaborate wave before going back to Cole who had been absent mindedly staring at his phone, so Steph wasn't his girlfriend or something else, she was his half-sister.

And finally everything was sorted, she looked down at the ring on her finger and the anxious boy waiting by the door an umbrella already ready for her.

This was pathetic of her, mooning after Cole when she had moved on, she wasn't married anymore and she wasn't going to put everything in jeopardy because of something as stupid as shared genetics and a romance with someone who wasn't Cole, she loved Andrew she really did and all she'd done tonight was judge and think of things she shouldn't.

But that stopped.

Tonight.