There is a peculiar kind of waiting that has very little to do with patience and everything to do with imagination. It begins the moment a person knows that news is coming, but does not yet know its shape. In that space between expectation and certainty, the mind becomes both storyteller and saboteur, rehearsing futures that may never come to pass and emotions not yet earned. It is one of the quiet dramas of ordinary life, and one of the most exhausting...

When a rain-soaked photographer waits for a life-altering phone call in a scarlet harbour payphone, the last person Daisy Wood expects to be stranded beside is her sharp-tongued rival, Adam Davis. But one disappointing call, one collapsed booking, and one forced week in close quarters begin to turn old resentment into something altogether more dangerous.