There was an awful moment where they stared at each other.

'Er, hi Emily,' Rachel said. She could see that Emily was shaking all over and she could bet that it wasn't because she was cold. The silence lengthened.

'Emily?' Stuart asked in uncertainly. At this Emily stopped staring at Rachel and turned on her husband.

'How could you!'

'Hey?' Stuart asked, clearly confused.

'First you want to drag me halfway round the world, even though you promised you wouldn't, you said we'd stay in one place, so that we could have a home! Now I find – tu parlez cette putain!' Rachel didn't know exactly what Emily had said at the end, but she knew that "putain" was a bad word, especially given the way it was pronounced. She sat up, ready to give back as good as she got, because today, she'd had more than enough of everything.

'Emily!' Stuart asked mystified. 'What did you say that for? What the hell's going on?' Maybe, Rachel thought, she'd better let Stuart handle it – after all, he was her husband, but then came Emily's answer.

'She - she ruins everything,' Emily said hysterically, pointing at Rachel. There was no way she was going to be backing off, into her apartment.

'Hey,' Rachel demanded, 'Who's "she?"' Damn it, Emily could just address her.

'She's toxic bloody waste!' Emily raged, ignoring Rachel, 'She's done it to me once and here she is, sneaking around, sticking her poisonous claws into another one of my husbands! She couldn't keep her hands off my first husband – '

'Hey,' Rachel said, to no avail. Stuart tried to take Emily's arm but she flung him off.

'Now she's doing it again! Well go on, take her to bloody China!'

'Emily,' Stuart began.

'I'll have the baby on my own, I don't need you!' Emily raged and stormed off. Stuart ran after her, throwing back an,

'I'm sorry,' to Rachel, and disappeared inside.

Rachel sat back down. She need wonder no longer. It was worse than she could ever have imagined, although at least it was over and done with now. She found herself trembling. First the metro, then work, and now this. Just because 'this' wasn't all that much of a surprise didn't make things any better.

She hated being here. No, she told herself, that wouldn't do. It was just a bad day. She'd get the metro, she'd figure things out at work, and Stuart and Emily would leave, one way or the other. It would be fine. She was living the opportunity of a lifetime, and as for the problem of missing Emma, well Emma would be here. It would be so much better then. She tried hard to visualise it but she couldn't.

She couldn't talk to a child about how she was feeling. She needed her friends but she'd left them behind. It was her choice. And things were changing anyway. They were all going their separate ways… Westchester wasn't all that far from where she had lived in New York – at least it wasn't an ocean away. Central Perk.

There were coffee houses in Paris – it was famous for having them. Coffee and conversation – but what good was conversation to her when she didn't understand it and didn't have anyone to go with either.

She looked around her. The middle aged couple on the balcony weren't visible, but she didn't feel like staying out in the garden, on view. Since she had given Emily and Stuart quite a head start, they would both be safely out of the way when she went up to her apartment. She might be an ocean away from her friends, but she could try giving Monica a call.

As she stood up, Stuart came back into the garden. Rachel could see that he had a red mark on the side of his face.

'She's not talking,' he said, sitting down. Rachel sat down. She wanted to say something, give him some words of sympathy for what he had suffered – none of it was his fault. Of course none of it was hers either… She suddenly noticed that he was looking at her, and feeling a lurch of apprehension, realised that his gaze was not friendly. 'You're the one who…'

She was 'the one' but as to what she'd been accused of doing, she didn't know. Emily could have and probably had said all kinds of things about her. Even the truth would have had to be carefully explained, and Emily would not be trying to make Rachel look good in any tale about the past. And this was Emily's husband, who'd regard anyone that Emily was against as the enemy.

'Oh no,' he said quietly.

'Look, I never intended to hurt her, things just happened,' Rachel said, 'If she blames me for what happened, it's not fair. I'm really not going to take any blame, not on top of everything else. If you want to scream at me, make an appointment!' She'd had enough today, but instead of the opposition she'd expected, Stuart shrugged.

'Look, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have a wife, she'd be married to someone else,' he said, 'To someone who doesn't deserve her.' There was more than one way to take that remark, but Rachel held her peace. She did not want to aggravate this man whom she rather liked, Emily's husband or not. 'Unless of course, you'd succeeded in breaking up the marriage in some other way,' he added, still sounding cold.

'I never would have done that!' Rachel exclaimed indignantly. 'I didn't do it in the first place. I'm not that kind of person.' Stuart gave her a sceptical look, but said,

'For the moment, I'll take it on trust that you didn't intend to hurt her.' Not as friendly as he had been, but better than he'd been half a minute ago.

'I didn't.' She hadn't. Emily had only ever been in the way, not a person she hated. Not really. As long as Emily lived her life, somewhere else, with other people, Rachel wished her every happiness she could have. 'I never knew she hated me so much.' It wasn't nice being the object of such hatred.

'Well, she won't let our baby be called Rachel if we have a girl,' Stuart said, 'But she's really only mentioned you once to me, believe it or not. It just seems unfortunate that you've turned up when she's already upset about moving overseas.'

'Oh. You're really going to move to China?'

'Oh yes, opportunities like this don't just come up every day.'

Suddenly, a woman came out of the building and spoke to Stuart in French, sparking off an intense conversation. That done, he said to Rachel, once more dashing away,

'Excuse me, I've got to go.' No explanation, no nothing.

The french woman had stayed in the garden until he left than then said,

'Ah, you are the New Yorker? His wife, she is having a baby,' she said. 'She is so anxious she went without him.' Or stubborn, if she intended on carrying on her resolution to be alone. That explained Stuart leaving in a hurry. 'A man should be with his wife at such a time,' she added, frigidly emphasising the word "wife."

'Hey, I wasn't stopping him,' Rachel said, feeling injured. Emily was understandable but why did everyone else have to believe she was up to no good? The woman walked away without giving her a hearing.

How she hated Paris!