adult conversation or allowing herself to enjoy his companionship. Nicola calls his bluff and loses: frustrated but resolute, he leaves, and her fragile emotional state deteriorates further. The opening night of The Regret Rien is a disaster. Volunteering her help when Aubrey's waitress has let him down, Wendy discovers that Aubrey has neglected to advertise the opening, with the result that no customers turn up. Aubrey proceeds to get helplessly drunk, taking to the pavement and railing against the world. Wendy gets him back inside, where Aubrey blubbers that he fancies her, starts to undress and passes out: "a quivering, sobbing gelatinous blob of disappointment". Wendy has to deal not only with him but with his glum and passive sous-chef/dogsbody Paula. Meanwhile, Andy and Patsy have gone to their local pub, where Andy gets uncharacteristically but emphatically drunk and ends up sleeping inside the decrepit fast-food van in his driveway. Wendy returns home to find him there. Unnerved by her bizarre evening, she loses her temper with the whole family. Phlegmatic and dry-humoured Natalie enjoys her unconventional work as a plumber, the simple pleasures of a pint and a game of pool, and dreams of visiting the U.S. In contrast, the fidgety and isolated Nicola becomes increasingly agitated, aggressive and reclusive, and Wendy finally confronts her. During the course of their long and anguished confrontation, Wendy makes it clear to Nicola that she is deeply worried about her, wondering why she makes no attempt to get involved with the causes she claims to believe. She tells Nicola of the struggle that she and Andy endured to care for their baby daughters – how it meant she never went to college and Andy working in a "job he hates". It emerges that during an earlier phase of Nicola's bulimia, she almost starved to death. Ashamed and angry, Nicola is convinced that Wendy and the rest of the family hate her. Instead, as the exasperated Wendy tells her "We don't hate you! We love you, you stupid girl!" and leaves the room, deeply upset. The brittle behavioural armour that Nicola has protected her psyche with is now shattered, and she breaks down sobbing. Meanwhile, Andy is seen running his kitchen at work with energy and authority but slips on a spoon, breaking his ankle. Wendy receives the news with a characteristic mixture of sympathy and amusement. She drives him home from the