‘I got the job,’ she said sadly. ‘Yay me.’ Her mouth was the reverse of a smile. They sipped their wine quietly.

‘What exactly did Ted say to you, at school that Monday morning, after I got back from Paris?’ Alice asked.

Nate sighed and rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin as if he had hoped to avoid the topic of Ted for a little longer. ‘He said if I didn’t leave the school, he’d report me and I’d struggle to work again. He said you two were working on your marriage and if I had any decency, I’d leave you alone and never contact you again. When I agreed, I didn’t know he’d already moved out. I thought that’s what you wanted too. But—’

Alice shook her head furiously, one hand up to indicate he stop speaking and one hand rubbing her forehead. She’d been resisting her attraction to Nate, even as her body refused to deny it; tiny jolts of electricity fizzed over her skin whenever their arms bumped or their hands grazed. Even her mother, hitherto Ted’s chief cheerleader, had been encouraging her to ‘move on’ since she’d learned of his affair with Sarah, but it had seemed inappropriate; disrespectful to her marriage. But who had she been kidding? Ted had slept with Nina the night before her wedding, when they were already legally married. Her marriage vows had been violated long ago.

‘Ted slept with my friend Nina. The night before our wedding.’ Saying it aloud didn’t make it seem any more real. She was in shock, she supposed.

‘What? How did you find out?’

‘She emailed me today. A confession,’ she said tartly. ‘Thirteen years too late.’

‘I’m sorry, Alice.’ He reached over the table and held her hand. Her skin crackled beneath his touch. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Fine. Just dead inside.’ Her jokes weren’t landing today at all. ‘It’s weird, it’s like, it’s a surprise and it’s not a surprise. When we were younger, they really fancied each other. It was so obvious. And I thought it just fizzled out. I thought… I thought he’d chosen me. But he was hers all along.’

Nate frowned in disbelief. ‘Did it happen more than once?’

‘I don’t think so. Nina says it didn’t. Says she couldn’t live with herself afterwards, she had to change her life, so she had therapy and became a famous entrepreneur. As you do,’ she said angrily. ‘I can’t open Instagram or read a magazine these days without a piece about La City Pâtisserie and its success and Nina’s coffee and her aesthetic and her fabulous, irritating life. She got to live that life after she’d destroyed mine.’

‘Fucking hate that coffee,’ he said, and she laughed in spite of herself.

‘I bet she knew, when we were in Paris. About Ted’s affair. She was snappy that weekend, not her usual self, and I can see it now. She knew and she didn’t want to tell me.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Nate reminded her. ‘I do need to tell you something about Ted though, Alice,’ Nate said, suddenly serious. ‘I was hoping we could have our celebratory lunch first but we’re here now.’ He played with the beer mat in his hand, sliding it through his fingers. ‘Ted emailed me. He must’ve got my email from the educational consultancy website.’ Burnt from the fiasco with Alice, Nate hadn’t wanted to commit to another permanent role. He had been doing supply teacher work and, motivated by his work with Charlotte, private Special Educational Needs consultancy work with families.