‘But I have to find somewhere to live, and I don’t have much time. Your firm has a property department, doesn’t it? And I’ve seen the photographs of flats for rent in your office windows. I thought you might know of somewhere that’s dog-friendly?’

‘I can ask Alasdair, he deals with that side of the business. Do you have much stuff? Books? Furniture?’

Tess laughs for the first time. ‘One rucksack and a cross-breed terrier. There have been a lot of trips to the charity shops. I even wiped my laptop and my phone and sold them to that electrical place near the university. My whole life for all the time we were together was stored online, and I couldn’t bear to touch them.’

Fiona stands up and retrieves the corkscrew from the dishwasher. ‘I’ll open another bottle. You can stay here tonight. The sofa pulls out into a bed and the kids are away until tomorrow.’

‘Thanks. I’ll just need to take Baxter out for a last pee.’

‘Of course.’ Fiona tussles with the cork.

*

The sitting room is big, but cosy, with squishy chairs and low lighting and real art on the walls. Tess stands in the bay window and looks across at the windows of the flats opposite through the gap in the curtains. ‘This is just like that print you’ve got in the hall.’

‘No, that’s Glasgow, the tenements are a different colour. Red sandstone.’

‘Yes, but it’s the same sort of thing. When you look out, you can see into other people’s lives. There’s a family watching TV over there, and a woman doing the ironing. And I can see a kid who probably doesn’t want to go to bed, having a story read to them. You can see it all from here.’

‘It’s one of the advantages of living high up; I always was a nosy parker.’

‘Everyone looks as though they are where they ought to be.’ Tess sighs. ‘I was starting to be at the fringes of belonging here, but I’m not sure I feel that way any more.’ She sits down and takes the glass Fiona is offering. ‘Thanks.’

Baxter settles at her feet.

Fiona hands over a bowl of Lindor truffles. ‘These have been in the freezer. No point in cheap chocolate at a time like this.’ She really wants to reach out and give Tess a hug, but a recent client with an adulterous husband had told her that being hugged was the worst thing. All her friends thought they were being kind, but all it did was remind the woman of the person, and the future, she had lost.

Fiona hadn’t forgotten it.