Gemma's mother is ""feeling old"" and leaves for the country for a few days, without telling anyone where. Howard tracks her down, bringing with him her reading glasses which she had left behind. Sebastian gives Rosie a ring, and gives up having breakfast with Gemma. Gemma seriously contemplates marriage to Rex.

When Sebastian, who is having breakfast as usual with Gemma, answers the door, it is Rex, Rosie's ex-boyfriend, who flattens him with one punch. Gemma is appalled, but ends up going out with Rex.

With the modest inheritance from her great aunt Cissy, Gemma decides to buy a second-hand car, and Sebastian helps her shop for one. Sebastian's latest conquest, Rosie, is proving to be more durable than his previous girlfriends.

Gemma returns from her vacation and discovers that Sebastian, who has been minding her flat, has accidentally killed her goldfish. Worse, her great aunt Cissy (Cecilia Isabel Waring) has passed away, and leaves a will asking Gemma to scatter her ashes which, with Sebastian's support, she manages to do

Being a social worker isn't easy. When Gemma's doctor diagnoses stress, he advises her to express her anger and orders her to take a vacation.

Gemma is feeling inhibited and consults her best friend Julia, whose 53-year-old husband Gerald has left her and returned to his first wife. She appears to be simply having fun, but turns out to be less self-confident than she at first seems. A power failure results in Gemma meeting the new upstairs tenant, Sebastian, with whom she spends the night.

It's now been six months since Gemma turfed Danny out for good, and she's now 31. She meets a much younger man, Raif (aged 19), who has some transport problems, first with a bicycle, then with a car.