Chapter 1

"Absence doesn't make the heart grown fonder," Sandy thought morosely as she sat alone at the bar, "all it does is make memories weak and temptation strong, turns lovers into strangers and gives strangers the opportunity to become lovers."

Reaching out one slightly unsteady hand she lifted the remnants of her drink to her lips and downed it in one, nodding to the barman for another, tonight, it seemed like she might need it.

It had been almost a month since she had last seen Rob, and, although they talked most days via text she'd noticed something was missing.

She thought back to when they'd first met, when her heart seemed to skip a beat each time she saw a message from him on her phone. Remembering how she'd wait impatiently for his replies, the sick feeling when he didn't reply immediately, the euphoria that spread through her when he did.

She wondered when that had changed...

It had come as a shock to her to realise that she now talked to him out of habit, talking for the sake of talking rather than from any desire to speak to him. She found herself having to work hard at maintaining conversations, forcing herself to think up new topics and interesting anecdotes even though she had nothing really to say. Knowing that one day soon she would have to accept the inevitable and acknowledge that, despite her best efforts, he no longer held her interest any more.

For some reason this thought made her unaccountably sad. She wanted to go back a few months and experience that excitement again, the thrill of when he was new to her, before the shine began to wear off around the edges and boredom set in.