The next day they came back to London. Bianca and Devin all rejuvenated in the front seat, Mike and Kendra quiet in the backseat. Kendra tried her best to cheer Mike up the night before at dinner. He couldn’t get over the fact that his hawk just left, flew away and never came back.

“What do you think was the problem?” he asked.

“Maybe it just wanted to escape for sometime and it took that day to make its move.”

“But why with me? Did I seem like someone to run from?”

“Maybe it has nothing to do with you,” Kendra said, though she sort of thought it did. Maybe birds could sense his helplessness.

The dinner dragged on with Mike interrogating the hawk escape from every angle. In the end Kendra got frustrated and said, “Maybe you should just stay away from birds.”

Mike gave her a hurt-filled look and got up from the table, leaving his pork chops uneaten.

Kendra was relieved when she was finally dropped back at her flat in London. She plopped down on the sofa. Carmen came out of the bedroom complaining in a loud, whiney voice. Hy had been in every day to feed her and check on her, but for Carmen that was not suitable.

“Sorry, darling,” Kendra said running her hand along the length of Carmen’s body just as she liked.

She got up to check her answering machine. She still had no cellphone. Her mother had convinced her they were Satan’s work. So she was the last dinosaur with an answering machine. Three messages from Annah, mostly gossip about people at work. The most juicy– the prima ballerina caught in the storeroom with the Nutcracker’s producer. That would be fun to see play out. A message from Hy to remind her to call as soon as she was back. A short terse message from Will – “Since you are not answering your phone, I will just say call me when you have a chance. It is important.” That was not going to happen, Kendra thought. Nothing Will had to tell her was important.

She sat back on the sofa with Carmen, disappointed. No message from Asra. Even though she knew she shouldn’t expect one, she did. The last time she spoke to him was at the beginning of June, and now it was the end of August. She was sure he would have moved on to other things, new relationships. He wouldn’t wait around for her, with all of her baggage. Why should he? He was perfect. And she was a complete knob.

The phone rang and she jumped from the sofa to answer. “Hi honey, so you’re back then,” her mother said. Hy not Asra. She tried not to sound disappointed.

“Yes, I just got back.”

“And did you enjoy yourself?”

“Sure,” Kendra said. “We went to the falcon place.”

“That’s nice, sweetheart. Listen I don’t want to put you in a bad mood when you’ve just arrived but I have some news.”

Now what? Why did her mother always have to build up to such things? In most cases the build-up was more dramatic than the actual news. “You won’t put me in a bad mood, just tell me.”

“So Will’s baby was born two days ago.”

Kendra lied; it did put her in a bad mood. But why, she wondered. Was she expecting Maxy to be pregnant for the rest of her life? Eventually the baby had to be born. Biology demanded it. “A girl or a boy?”

“A girl. They named her Ellipse.”

“Ellipse? Isn’t that a punctuation mark of some sort?”

“Yes, it was Maxy’s idea but apparently she got it wrong. She meant for it to be Eclipse, but now it’s on the birth certificate as Ellipse so they’re sticking with that.”

Shouldn’t poets understand words? “Okay, that’s nice Ma. Any other news?”

“No, not really. Fred bought a juicer. Have you heard from Asra?”

“Ma, I told you not to talk about that. Anyway, I’m supposed to call him, call him when I’m over Will.”

“So are you over Will?”

“Yes.”

“Then call him.”

“Okay, I gotta go.”

She hung up and sat down on the sofa taking Carmen in her arms. She couldn’t stop the tears. She was sad that Will had a baby girl called Ellipse with Maxy and not with her. She was supposed to have a baby girl called Ellipse with Will. Except not called Ellipse, but called something sensible like Eliza. But now she never would. She’d just be a horrible old spinster. No baby! No Asra! She cried into Carmen’s black fur until the cat had enough and hissed at Kendra to be let go.

Kendra watched Carmen disappear into the bedroom and started to get angry. Angry at herself. This stupid obsession with Will was ruining her life. What did it matter? He moved on with his life. He had that right. Why didn’t she move on too? Why was she stuck in one place unable to move at all? Will was not worth all this. Will was not worth losing Asra over. She was done with this Will obsession. Finished and done.

And so the summer carried on and just as the leaves were beginning to change colours her therapist called her in for a special session. She sat down across from the rather stern, middle-aged woman and waited to hear what it was all about, why she’d been called in like a naughty schoolgirl. Had she somehow seen the doodles of the superhero The Fantastic Asra?

“So Kendra, we’ve spent the entire summer working on your issues with your ex-boyfriend, how are you feeling about him now?” Her eyebrows arched upward nearly meeting her hairline her face transformed into a physical question mark.

Kendra thought for a moment before answering. She thought she’d made quite a bit of progress actually. She’d even managed to go with Will’s mother to see the baby and hadn’t felt anything except firstly, sadness for the terrible name the beautiful little girl was burdened with and then how perfectly adorable she was. She saw Will and Maxy together and it hadn’t troubled her at all. She felt that maybe she was finally over Will and all of the anger she’d felt toward him was finally gone.

“I think maybe I’m better,” she said tentatively, her voice going up at the end as if it were a question not a statement. She was not quite sure she had the right to say it as a statement.

The therapist smiled. “I do too. Actually I think we’re done you and I.”

“No more therapy?” Kendra asked.

“Nope.” The therapist smiled, happy that her work was finished.

Kendra left the office feeling lighter. It had been terrible having to walk around angry all of the time. But then, after considering everything, she felt scared. Now she could contact Asra, but what would be the chances that after three months he’d still be around waiting for her? Pretty unlikely she guessed. He was so handsome and wonderful in every way. She was sure some lucky woman was already in his arms. But, still, now she had no excuse not to find out if Asra would be part of her future or not.