“I asked him if he was going on a trip, but I knew he wasn’t, because he’d just got back from one,” Sara continued. “He didn’t say anything at first, just carried on folding shirts. I’ll say one thing for Terry, that man can fold clothes like a laundress. If ever the business goes under, he could—I’m rambling again.”

She took a sip of Todd’s coffee and looked out the window for a moment.

“He put the shirts in the suitcase and closed the lid. Then he stood up, and he said, ‘I’m leaving you, Sara.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘There’s someone else.’ At first I thought he meant you, but the way he wasn’t catching my eye, I realized, he meant he was seeing someone else.”

“Oh, the irony,” Todd said.

“Right,” said Sara. “Here I am, wondering if I’m about to be hauled over the coals, when Terry gets up and spills his own beans. By now, I’m so surprised I don’t know what to say. I mean, Terry? He was okay when I met him but he’s let himself go.”

“So who is it?” said Todd. “Do I know her?”

“The lucky lady?” said Sara. “You’ll have seen her, all right. You may have even spoken to her. Not that you’ll remember.” For the first time, there was a note of bitterness in her voice.

She turned to Todd. “It’s one of his checkout girls,” she said. “She’s twenty, Todd. She’s twenty and she’s pregnant.”

“Jesus,” he said, in disbelief.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Sara. “He won’t tell me her name, in case, I dunno, I go into the store where she works and start screaming. Like I would do that to a child. A child who’s…” Sara began to weep.

“It’s okay,” Todd said, and put his arm around her. Part of his mind was calculating that this was the most time he had gone without being a dick since high school.

Sara began to sob properly now.

“He’s forty-eight,” she said. “He’s old enough to be her dad. He’s old enough to be the baby’s granddad. He told me he didn’t want kids.”

“The bastard,” said Todd, and was surprised to find that he meant it.

“She’s got him by the balls,” said Sara. “He isn’t going to know what hit him.”

“What about—” Todd hesitated. “What about your future?” he said.

“He says he’ll see me right,” said Sara. “And I believe him. He’s got enough money to do that, and to look after the kid. I mean—”

“I know what you mean,” said Todd.

Sara stood up straight and looked into Todd’s eyes.