'What the hell are you doing here?!'

To say that Serena was put out was an understatement.

'Oh I'm sorry, were we intruding?' Asked Sian accompanied by her grinning boyfriend.

'I'm changing the locks' warned Serena.

'Oh don't do that darling, we just wanted to come over for a nightcap and I didn't have any red wine left' wheedled Sian.

'Get the wine and get out' said Serena, no longer caring about her store of Shiraz. She'd been rudely interrupted from playtime with a sexy specimen and now she was too grumpy to recapture the mood. She sighed with disappointment and manoeuvred herself off Bernie.

'Sorry Bernie, normally I rely on my daughter to catch me at it but not this time' she joked half-heartedly.

'At least I'm not going to shout at you for being embarrassing' replied Sian from the kitchen.

'Well you're embarrassing me now so can you just?'

'Alright we're going.'

'Can you excuse me a minute?' Serena asked her date. She got a nod in return. She cornered Sian by the door.

'Whatever happened to ringing me to let me know of your gate-crashing?'

'I thought you'd still be out. Whatever happened to don't you dare give her my number? I obviously underestimated your willingness to the sapphic cause.'

Bernie tried to shake her lingering arousal off and started to accuse her son of planning the attack.

'No! Well, we wanted you to get out more. We thought you'd play hard to get but you made it way too easy for Serena.'

'Easy?' Bernie felt like she was being played for a fool. 'Serena's been experimenting with me?'

'No, mum. I just mean that you seem so resistant to communicating with people on a more personal level. We thought that if you'd met someone, you'd be happier, more open to saying yes to things.'

'All of you were planning this?' Bernie felt betrayed.

'It's not like that' interrupted Serena, coming back in the room. Bernie turned to face her, voice quivering.

'I really liked you. I thought that we were on the same page tonight. But right now I feel like you've been trying to humiliate me.'

'What did you think I was going to do, record us having sex and post it online?' Serena looked severely pissed off now. 'Seriously Bernie, if that's what you think this is then no wonder you find it difficult to make friends. I get why you would be suspicious of my motives but there's no need to be. You weren't supposed to ask me out!'

Bernie took a minute to think about it. She didn't understand.

'I was meant to ask you out' Serena explained gently. 'I wasn't going to ask you out for dinner until later, when we'd got to know each other a bit better. I did want to.'

Bernie could see Sian flash a triumphant expression behind Serena's back. She didn't know how annoyed she felt about it. Serena liked her enough to ask her out for dinner and that made her feel like a flicker of flame had been lit inside her, without knowing it, had even ignited their first kiss. Which had been incredible. She'd wanted it to last forever. But it was all ruined if this was all a set-up.

The silence went on as they all looked at her to speak. She did what she normally did.

'I think I'd better go. I can't deal with this right now.'