Cold Feet

The end of Jenny's pregnancy approaches, and she becomes increasingly irritated by Pete's enthusiastic preparation for the birth, such as his route maps to the hospital and his expert knowledge of labour. Karen and David's son Josh misbehaves at nursery, leading David to blame their nanny, Ramona. Adam and Rachel discuss moving in together but fall out after an argument over whose flat to live in. They put their differences aside when Jenny goes into labour while Pete is playing golf with David. As Rachel drives to pick up Pete, Adam stays with Jenny through the birth of her son, who she and Pete name Adam.

Adam and Rachel move into their first home together but he soon moves out when he discovers that she is secretly married. He starts sleeping at Pete and Jenny's but is forcibly evicted to give them room with their new baby. He returns home and meets Kris (Lennie James), Rachel's husband, who she has invited up to Manchester to sort out their divorce. Adam puts up with Kris for a while but eventually pays him £500 to go away, asking him to promise not to tell Rachel. Kris accepts and leaves. Adam is disappointed when Rachel tells him she also paid Kris £500 to leave. Karen takes control of hers and David's finances when his investment in a South African golf course flops.

David tells Adam that he is having problems with his sex life, so Adam seeks advice for "a friend" from Pete. Pete assumes Adam's "friend" is actually Adam himself and tells Jenny that Rachel cannot satisfy Adam in bed. Rachel decides she and Adam need to spice up their relationship by disclosing their fantasies to each other—and hers is to have sex in a shop window. He gets the keys to a charity shop from a friend and they sneak in after closing time. The fantasy quickly turns into a nightmare when a ramraider drives a car through the shop window. The police arrive and Adam and Rachel are taken to the police station. Meanwhile, David decides to bypass traditional sex therapy by visiting a prostitute under an assumed name. Pete and Jenny start having sex for the first time since the birth of their baby, acting out her fantasy of a squire and his lowly servant, though his imagination is repeatedly invaded by an attractive barmaid.

Karen returns to work in publishing and is tasked with editing the new novel by renowned author Alec Welch (Denis Lawson), for whom she immediately falls. She believes that he feels the same way about her and is excited when a book tour in Liverpool means an overnight stay with him in a hotel. David learns of her plans and concludes that the only way to get back is to sleep with Ramona. Pete's parents visit him and Jenny, testing Pete's already fraying relationship with his father (Sam Kelly). In the wake of meeting Welch at the Marsdens' dinner party, Adam decides to start work on a novel about a man's fraying relationship with his father.

Following David's attempt to sleep with Ramona and Karen's attraction to Welch, the couple seek marriage guidance counselling. After David causes a scene in her office, the therapist suggests Karen and David go on a "first date" with each other to try to rediscover their attraction to each other. Jenny looks for something apart from the baby to talk to Pete about. Adam seeks to prove to Rachel that he is not a "sad old man" after she finds out he is attracted to their neighbour (Anna Madeley) by organising a lad's night out. Rachel, Karen and Jenny go to a divorce party hosted by a friend of Karen's, while Adam and Pete try to buy some E at a club.

David invites the other couples to a charity ball he and Karen are attending, where Jenny lets off a fire extinguisher over Natalie (Lorelei King), David's boss. Natalie demands compensation and a written apology from Jenny, putting David in a difficult position. Rachel tells Karen that she is pregnant but does not know whether the father is Adam or Kris, whom she slept with when he was staying in Manchester. Adam proposes to Rachel, thinking he is the father, and is distraught when he learns he may not be. Rachel decides to move to London until the baby is born, and Adam follows her to the station, imagining a Brief Encounter-esque reconciliation. He tells her that he does not care who the father is. Rachel proves that he does care and leaves anyway.