His tone triggers a wave of nausea and I find myself sitting up in my sleeping bag.

‘But you do see a future with me, right?’ I ask cautiously.

‘Yeah. You know I love you. But…’ He’s not meeting my eyes.

‘What?’ I ask warily.

He sighs and my nausea ramps up a notch. ‘I guess I’ve felt a little… stifled lately.’

‘What?!’

‘You never want to go out any more,’ he says. ‘We’re becoming boring.’

‘You mean I’m becoming boring. You’ve been going out plenty,’ I snap.

‘I’m only twenty-eight, Bronte! We should be out every other night, having a laugh with our mates, not sitting at home relentlessly watching telly on the sofa.’

‘Do these mates include Fliss?’ I ask irately.

‘Don’t start that again,’ Lachie snaps.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a nasty surprise when I overheard Elliot asking Lachie if Fliss was okay.

‘What’s this?’ I interrupted, and it may have just been my imagination, but Lachie seemed to tense up.

‘Her ex has been harassing her,’ he divulged, reluctantly, I thought at the time.

‘Lachie’s been her knight in shining armour,’ Elliot teased.

‘It’s no big deal.’ Lachie brushed us off.

‘In what way?’ I persisted, forcing a smile, despite my unease.

‘He’s just been giving her a bit of shit, always ringing her, turning up at her flat uninvited, wanting her back. He rocked up at that wedding we were doing last weekend, so I told him where to go.’

‘Pow!’ Elliot interjected, smacking his fist against his other hand.

‘You punched him?’ I asked my boyfriend, shocked.

‘I didn’t punch him,’ he snapped infuriatedly, shooting Elliot a look. ‘I just gave him a bit of a shove.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I asked.

‘It wasn’t a big deal.’

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Elliot pulling a face, as though he’d belatedly realised he’d landed his mate in trouble. I chose to drop the subject, but couldn’t let it lie.

‘Why didn’t you tell me what was going on with Fliss?’ I asked later.

‘I told you, it wasn’t a big deal.’

‘Elliot knew. How was that, then?’

‘He came out that night with us, remember? You didn’t feel like it.’

‘Only because it was eleven o’clock by the time you finished that wedding!’ I exclaimed. ‘I was already in bed! I thought you were going to come home!’

It was not the first argument we’d had in recent months.

‘Do you find her attractive?’ I ask Lachie now. It’s time we got to the bottom of this.

‘Of course she’s attractive – any bloke would think so.’

‘No, do you find her attractive?’ I repeat.

‘What do you expect me to say?’ he responds eventually, his eyes glinting in the darkness.

‘Oh, shit,’ I mumble, fighting back tears as I unzip my sleeping bag.

‘What are you doing?’ he mutters, reaching for my arm.

I snatch it away from him. ‘Getting some fresh air.’