‘Oh. That’s a shame. I mean, whoops, not a shame for him and the lucky Caitlin, obviously but I thought … well, he is very easy on the eye.’ Chloe smiled again. ‘Not as gorgeous as Gabriel Mathias, of course. I mean … I’m sorry, I hadn’t realised that you’d known him so well when he lived here.’

Sam realised that she’d have to tell Chloe the truth about her and Gabe before she heard the full details elsewhere.

‘I ought to tell you something before half the town does. I didn’t just know Gabe, we once went out. It was years ago before he was famous when his mum and dad still ran the chip shop next to the post office.’

It was fair to say that Chloe’s jaw dropped.

‘We’d been to the same school and we’d always fancied each other but we started going out properly after we left. I was nineteen and Gabe was just a year older than me.’

‘Wow. You went out with Gabriel Mathias?’

‘Yes. Hard to believe, eh?’

‘Yes. No, not at all, you’re so lovely, Sam, and I can see why but it’s so … so surreal.’

Sam smiled to herself at being called ‘lovely’. Not everyone in Porthmellow would agree, but it was nice of Chloe to be kind. ‘Gabe wasn’t quite as gorgeous then. I mean, he was gorgeous to me. By far the sexiest boy in the village, but he was skinny and bolshie and he worked in the chip shop so he was always covered up in an overall and a hair net and some of the other kids used to tease him and call him Vinegar Face and Grease Ball.’

‘How awful for him.’

‘I liked him. I used to go in late or early to the shop and chat to him. I’d hang around and order stuff I didn’t want so I could talk to him. I can’t tell you how many pickled eggs and saveloys I fed to the seagulls.’

Chloe laughed.

‘Joking apart, I knew he was a nice guy. Thoughtful, ambitious and he loved his parents. We both loved cooking, even then. Mum had taught me to cook and Gabe had big dreams of becoming a chef, but he told me he didn’t feel he could leave his mum and dad to run the business. His grandparents had built it up from nothing after they’d escaped from Cyprus during the war with Turkey. The family had made a new life here and Gabe didn’t know how to tell them he didn’t want to carry it on. He was training to be a chef at catering college by the time we started seeing each other, as well as doing shifts at his parents’ chip shop. He was doing well and ambitious even all those years ago.’