‘Can we talk about it later?’ she asked, feeling flummoxed at being put on the spot, let alone how they’d suddenly gone from him treating her, to them going halves on her own birthday trip. But then this was typical of Phil; on Valentine’s Day they had gone to the Indian restaurant round the corner for a curry. It was to be his treat. Only he discovered he’d left his wallet in the pocket of his other jeans when the waiter brought the bill … and so she had paid. And he still hadn’t ‘sorted her out’ for the pizza she paid for the other night. Not that she minded paying, but it would be nice if he took a turn now and again, especially if he had promised up front to treat her. And she didn’t have enough money to spend on spa weekends in any case. But she wasn’t about to debate all of this in front of Ellis.

‘Where are you then?’ Phil asked. ‘I thought you were just at work.’

‘I am,’ she quickly told him, ‘well, I’m actually in a café—’

‘What are you doing there? You don’t even like going out.’

‘Oh, I’m drinking hot chocolate.’

‘What? On your own?’

‘No, I’m with Ellis. He’s Betty and Larry’s nephew, he’s come over from America to help us—’

‘I see.’

‘Phil, I can’t really talk right now,’ she said quietly into the phone, conscious of Ellis stirring his coffee. He was seemingly not listening to the conversation out of politeness, but how could he not hear what was being said when he was sitting right opposite her?

‘Whatever.’ And Phil ended the call.

Grace slipped her phone inside her bag and went back to the cream on her hot chocolate.

‘Everything OK?’ Ellis asked gently.

‘Oh, yes, sure. That was …’ Grace hesitated on realising that she hadn’t actually ever said that Phil was her boyfriend out loud to anyone before now. Not even to Jamie. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if she had ever spoken properly about Phil to him. Maybe she should. It might be useful to get another perspective on their relationship … but then, possibly not, for she knew Jamie probably wouldn’t like Phil. He hadn’t been impressed when she’d mentioned about having to pay at the last minute for the curry on Valentines Day … ‘A friend,’ she settled on.

‘A friend.’ Ellis nodded, taking a sip of his coffee.

‘You were showing me the pictures …’

‘Oh yes, see this one here …’ He put the cup down, picked up his phone and tapped the screen to bring the image of the Venice waterway and the Salute into view.

‘Ah, that’s my favourite one,’ said Grace, licking a speck of cream that had fallen from the spoon onto her index finger.

‘In that case you have an excellent eye for art.’