The sound of the front door opening brought Katy to her senses and she swore, glancing at Tyler with wide eyes. He looked equally startled at the sound, grabbing for his jeans hastily. Signalling for him to stay where he was, the young woman poked her head out onto the landing and tried to see who had walked into the house.

"T?"

"Nah, babe, it's me."

Katy's eyes slipped closed at the sound of Isaac's voice. "I thought we said–"

"I borrowed Tina's keys 'cos I figured you could do with dinner being cooked for you after your meeting."

"Uhhh… yeah." Panicking, the blonde wracked her brains trying to work out what to do. "I was actually just gonna jump in the shower."

"I'll join you."

"Fuck…" Katy muttered, turning back to look at Tyler who seemed to be frozen to the spot in shock. "It's my boyf– it's Isaac. You're gonna have to try and sneak out."

"How?" He demanded, motioning towards the door and indicating that there was no way he'd be able to sneak down the stairs and out of the front door without being spotted.

"I'll distract him."

"Oh god…"

"Tyler… this never happened, alright? This cannot happen."

"Fine by me!" He agreed. "You ain't the only one with an other half, you know? I don't particularly want her getting wind of this either."

Katy paused. "We're still sorted over dropping the custody thing, though, right?"

"Yeah, course. This was a mistake, but we're grown ups and we've gotta put the girls first."

Smiling at him, Katy slipped out of the bedroom and leant over the banisters, winking at Isaac. "You coming or what?"

He laughed and ran up the stairs, wrapping his arms around her and bundling her into the bathroom. Katy was sure he must have heard the front door closing a couple of minutes later, but Isaac made no sign that he'd noticed anything and she finally relaxed.

"You on another planet or what?"

"Hmm?"

Tina chuckled at the spaced out expression on her friend's face as she stared into her coffee absent-mindedly. "Isaac tired you out last night, did he?"

"What?"

"Ain't that why you're practically asleep on the table?"

"I… no." Katy shook her head. "I need to call Ritchie, but I'm putting it off."

"Why? What's happened?"

"I spoke to Tyler yesterday. He's agreed to drop the custody thing; we're gonna sort it out between us."

"Surely that's a good thing?" Tina frowned in confusion. "Why're you putting it off?"

Katy shrugged. "I dunno."

"I thought that was what you wanted?"

"It is."

"So…?"

"I did something really stupid…"

"Katy? What's wrong, babe?"

"I…" She shook her head. "Ritchie told me not to speak to him. She's gonna be pissed off that I did it anyway."

Tina didn't look entirely convinced but rolled her eyes. "As long as you got the result you wanted, it's fine, right?"

"Yeah."

As the brunette started talking about the final preparations for their huge event the next day, Katy zoned out. She wrapped her hands around her coffee mug thinking about the implications of the afternoon before. If Tyler was messing with her than she had played right into his hands. If not, it would be a huge weight of her shoulders. Making up her mind to tell Ritchie to wait until they heard that Tyler's solicitor was dropping things before she made any moves, the blonde stood up abruptly.

"You seeing Graham this week?"

"What?"

"Katy, babe, you've really got to get a grip!" Tina shook her head, grabbing the mug that had almost dropped from the blonde's hand and putting it in the sink. "I just asked if you're seeing Graham at any point."

"Oh… no. He's probably going to come to R&R on Saturday with his son, but he hasn't got any events coming up."

Tina grinned. "He ain't coming to R&R for his son, is he?"

"Shut up, Tina. It ain't like that and you know it."

"Sure."

"Tina… he put us onto that new supplier and it's saving us a shedload, alright, so whatever you think we're getting something out of it too."

Holding up her hands, the older woman shrugged. "Hey, I ain't judging. All I'm saying is that I don't reckon Isaac would be best pleased to see him flirting with you across the bar."

"There's no flirting involved, T, so it won't be a problem."

"Whatever you say, boss."

Glaring at her, Katy muttered that she was going to phone Ritchie and stalked into the living room. She was sure she'd heard Tina laughing before she shut the door, but didn't dwell on it. A couple more minutes passed and then the front door slammed and Katy guessed that her friend had finally gone to the bar and left her in peace.

As she'd expected, Ritchie wasn't best pleased to hear that she'd gone against her advice and met up with Tyler, but she did agree that waiting to hear that they had dropped their side of things before they acted was a sensible idea. Katy didn't want to believe that Tyler could have been playing her, but she wasn't about to risk anything either. She listened as Ritchie outlined their contingency plan, before agreeing and ending the call.

Not feeling like heading into the office, knowing that Kathy and Tina had things under control, Katy wondered what to do. She missed having Lauren and Whitney around, remembering simpler days when they'd spent most of their time hanging around in the Vic or the café. Life hadn't always been a barrel of laughs, but at least they'd had each other when it mattered. Now though, Lauren was hundreds of miles away and Whitney was locked up and cutting herself off and Katy felt truly lonely.

Pulling out her phone she called her mother, wondering whether Ronnie might be up for meeting for lunch. Her call went to answerphone, so she huffed and hung up without bothering to leave a message. Instead she called her aunt.

"Hey, Rox… fancy getting some lunch?"

"I'd love to, babe," Roxy replied breathlessly, "but Christian and Syed are arriving for the weekend in a couple of hours and I'm trying to get the flat sorted so they've got somewhere to sleep."

"Oh… yeah, I completely forgot."

"You're still OK for Matthew to stay over at yours, right? My whole plan is screwed if I can't sleep in his room so they can have mine."

"Yeah, course… the girls are really excited. You'd think they didn't see each other every single day."

Roxy laughed. "Oh, shit… I've gotta go. Bleach incident."

Before Katy could make a sarcastic comment about her aunt using bleach, the line went dead. Deciding to call her mother again before resorting to calling her grandmother, Katy flopped back against the sofa cushions and waited as the call connected.

"Hey, sweetie, are you OK?"

"Yeah… where are you?"

"Oh, I'm just…"

"Are you with Dad?"

"Katy…"

The younger woman huffed. "I was gonna see whether you wanted to get some lunch, but clearly you've got more important things to do."

"Come on, sweetheart, please don't be like this."

"Like what?" Katy demanded, irrationally irritated.

"Judgemental." Ronnie replied bluntly. "You're better than that."

"Am I? Thanks for reminding me."

"Stop acting like a brat." Her mother snapped. "You're twenty-seven-years-old, for god's sake; you are not a child."

Hanging up without saying anything else, Katy sent a rude hand gesture towards her phone and rested her head back against the sofa cushions, staring up at the ceiling. Angrily, she kicked out at the coffee table, knocking it over and sending the contents spilling across the carpet. Rationally, Katy didn't even know why she was so angry; she didn't really think it had anything to do with her parents. They were, however, the easiest focus for her feelings at that moment.

Pulling out her phone, she selected another number and waited for the call to be answered. "Hey, is this a bad time?"

"Not at all; you're saving me from a financial report I've been avoiding all morning."

"I'm at a loose end and wondered whether you might be around for lunch?"

"I'm flattered." Graham replied with a chuckle. "What would your boyfriend say about it?"

"It's nothing to do with him." Katy reminded him bluntly. "Besides, he's at work, so…"

"I'll send a car."

Katy rolled her eyes. "Or you could tell me where you want to go and I'll get a cab."

Graham chuckled again. "Fine… I'll text you the details."

"See you in a bit."

Dragging herself off the sofa, Katy headed upstairs to get dressed. She was glad of the excuse to get dressed up, assuming that Graham would choose somewhere with a dress code of some sort. Laughing at her reflection, she decided she'd look really stupid if he decided on somewhere like McKlunky's instead.

She was proved right as the restaurant she'd been directed to turned out to be the kind of upmarket business that she'd been expecting. Thanking the cab driving and handing over the fare, Katy smoothed down her dress and headed inside, giving Graham's name to the host and following him as he led her towards the back of the room.

"You look beautiful." Graham told her, standing to press a kiss to her cheek and pull out her chair for her to sit down.

"Thanks… and thanks for meeting me. I just had to get away from the Square."

"Problems?"

She shook her head quickly. "No… just the usual family stuff."

"Parents?"

"How did you guess?" Katy deadpanned, before sighing.

"I imagine my son is saying something similar. He doesn't understand why I want to go to Pride with him. I tried telling him that R&R is the place to be on Saturday night and I couldn't pass up the chance of seeing my favourite bar owner, but apparently that's not a good enough reason."

Laughing, Katy leant back in her chair, swirling the wine in her glass. "You're definitely coming then?"

"Of course. His brother and sister will be too. They want to make sure his first Pride is a memorable occasion."

"Hopefully it will be. We've been working hard on it… this is our Christmas. In fact, I think it might be bigger for us than that and New Year's rolled into one."

"Well I'm looking forward to it."

"Mmm…" Katy shot him a look. "You might wanna consider wearing a stab vest… or at least lie low while you're there. Mum and Aunty Rox are working the bar with me."

Graham chuckled. "I'm assuming your mother still thinks I have nefarious plans for you?"

"Oh, she definitely does."

"And do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Think I have nefarious plans for you?"

Katy laughed. "I wouldn't be sitting here if I did."