“This could be like a sister café to the restaurant. We could call it the Pomegranate by the Sea. You could stay down here while we rebuild our marriage, we could start dating, go back to the beginning. It would be exciting, romantic, me dropping you off at your door after a nice meal. You’d get the breathing space you need, and we’d be building the business at the same time.”

“I don’t need breathing space, Max. I . . .”

“Don’t answer now. Sleep on it. You can’t tell me the boys wouldn’t love to see us at least try.”

Max’s phone buzzed on the counter, and Annie automatically picked it up to pass it to him. And then she saw the message.

Ellie mobile: Hey Maxi, I’m sad I won’t get to see you tonight . I’m keeping it warm for you baby Xxx

Max must have seen the expression on her face because the color drained out of his cheeks. He looked as though he’d like to make a dash for it, but he didn’t. He stood frozen to the spot.

A wash of nausea sloshed in Annie’s stomach as adrenaline shot through her. He was still lying, even now. All those meaningless words. She was glad the boys were upstairs. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

“You told me it was over with Ellie.”

“It was! It is!”

“I’m not sure Ellie knows that.”

“Well, she’s, you know, she’s not so bright . . .”

“Max!” The word snapped out of her, loud like a gunshot.

Max jumped and dropped the mop.

“You are a liar!” She began to move toward him, and he took a few steps back, hands held up in supplication.

“Annie, I promise you, I ended it. It was over. But then it looked like you weren’t coming back, and she wanted to meet and . . .”

“Tell me the truth! For once in your life just tell me the fucking truth!”

He couldn’t meet her eyes. “I didn’t want to be alone,” he almost whispered. “But I swear, if you’d come back, I would have ended it straight away. That would have been it!”

“You were hedging your bets!” She laughed bitterly. “I should have known.”

“It was a stupid thing to do, I know that.”

“What about that day? Upstairs? When you told me you loved me and tried to get into my knickers. Were you seeing her then?”

“I would have finished it!” Max said helplessly. “All you had to do was say the word.”

“I shouldn’t have to say any words for you to not cheat on me, Max! At its most basic level, the function of a marriage is that you don’t fuck other people!”