I wasn’t sure what to say to her, so I just reached over and squeezed her arm. She turned back towards the front of the queue.

My last break-up had been completely different to Siobhan’s. I’d been so furious with my ex that the anger had carried me through the grief. Sure, there were times when I was sad about the break-up, but I didn’t really miss him. Mostly, because he’d cheated with a friend of mine and we’d been together less than a year. Whereas Siobhan and Liam had been together for an aeon. And even if they weren’t passionately in love, she clearly still loved him. She must have missed him like crazy.

We eventually made it to the buffet table and let’s just say they hadn’t scrimped. Even Siobhan perked up a bit when we saw the spread of seafood and salads. I piled as many prawns on my plate as I could, added some salad, and grabbed a knife and fork. If I’d been a more dextrous person, I would have made a plate for Josh, but being a klutz comes with its limits.

We went back to Josh, picking our way carefully around people who were sprawled on the deck of the boat. Not surprisingly, we’d taken so long that his drink was finished and the ice in mine had melted. We sat down as he got up.

“Wow, that looks good,” he said.

“There’s still lots left and there shouldn’t be much of a line now,” I replied. When he left, I picked up a prawn and broke its head off. I tossed it into the water and watched as a handful of fish made a beeline for it. I then peeled off the shell and popped the pink and white flesh in my mouth. Delicious.

I realised that Siobhan was watching me in horror. “What?” I asked.

“I can’t believe you can just rip its head off like that. Don’t you get squeamish?”

I laughed. “No, definitely not. I’ve been eating prawns like this since I was little. Hang on, does that mean you’ve never had a prawn?”

“Well, no, I have. You know those little tiny ones that come in take-away fried rice?” I knew the ones. I pitied the person whose job it was to take their heads and shells off. How fiddly.

“Here.” I expertly shucked a prawn and handed it to her. She took it with a slight frown on her face. Then she shrugged and took a big bite. I watched her chew, her expression changing. She swallowed.

“Oh, feckin’ ’ell! That’s fantastic. That’s the best thing I’ve had in my mouth in ages!” She laughed loudly at her own crudeness, then popped the rest of prawn in her mouth. By the time Josh got back with his plate, we’d eaten all the prawns and Siobhan was a fairly decent prawn shucker. “I’m going back for more,” she said, jumping up and taking our plates with her.

“What was that about?” asked Josh.