Zero

This is nice.

No!

My beast wasn’t impressed.

I’d stopped just outside a mid-sized town and was eating a picnic lunch on the grass beside a small lake. The sun was shining, and the dappled light filtered through the leaves of a birch tree onto the blanket I’d laid out.

There was no one else nearby as it was midweek; kids were in school, and adults were at work. But on the far side of the lake, there was a playground and a small restaurant, and elderly couples were enjoying a meal or just a coffee at the outdoor tables while young children played on the swings, watched by their parents or carers.

While eating the quiche I’d picked up at a local bakery, I studied the families enjoying the pleasant weather. With my time consumed by work and keeping my beast happy, or if not exactly happy, then content, there was no space in my life for romance or a relationship, not even a one-night stand. Well, okay, maybe a couple of no- questions-asked romps after late-night drinking sessions at whatev