Bronte seemed startled, then began to laugh—the first time I’d seen her do that. ‘Bisous, Dennis, bisous.’ She blew kisses at him, he returned fire and they grinned at each other.

‘See,’ Dennis said to Chalkie. ‘It’s nice to be nice. Here’s Harlie. Bee-soo, Harlie.’

Harlie was weeping openly.

‘Ah, now, now, now.’ Gingerly Dennis patted her on the back. ‘Still crying about your man? Jez, who’d blame you, he’s a hunk, that lad, a hunk and a half. Anywan’d be boolie-versay about him.’

That just made Harlie cry more and as soon as everyone was settled, I started with her.

‘We were really in love, me and Cal,’ she said. ‘You know how you see other couples and they don’t even like each other? But me and Cal were best buds.’ As the tears seized her once more, she squeaked out the next five words. ‘He was my best friend.’

We let her cry.

‘I’d always wanted to meet the perfect man,’ she said. ‘And he was it. But he still wasn’t enough.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I thought he’d turned into this boring fucker who interfered with my drinking. But I was the one who had changed. I preferred drinking to him. And still, I hated him for fucking off and leaving me. I thought he was really selfish. Now I sort of get it.’

‘What do you get?’

‘He left me because he thought it would help me.’

All the downy hairs on my arms stood up—this was exactly what Luke had said to me last night. If I believed Caleb—and I did—surely I should believe Luke?

*

If my ducklings thought they’d get an easy afternoon because it was Friday, they were in for another think: Ella’s boss, Boyd Heffernan, had arrived.

Late thirties, dressed in a suit and tie and already balding, he was a very different proposition to Ella’s boyfriend Jonah.

From the couple of chats we’d had, Boyd struck me as a man who’d expected great things from his life, only for it all to veer off into tedious mediocrity. Whatever dysfunctional thing he had going on with Ella, he was hanging a lot of hope on it.

When I led him into group, Ella’s head snapped up and visible sweat popped on her skin. From the looks of her, there was a real chance she might faint.

I asked Boyd to introduce himself.

‘I’m Ella’s line manager at work,’ he said. ‘We’re also in a relationship.’

An audible shock moved through the group and Dennis blurted out, ‘What about the other lad?’ Then, with a mortified squeak, ‘Sorry, son, don’t mind me.’

‘Are you talking about Jonah?’ Boyd asked. ‘Because they’ve finished. She’s just waiting for the right time to leave.’

I was certain that that would have come as news to Jonah.