Jemma gasped. ‘You’re kidding!’

‘I wish I was.’ I shuddered as I pictured them. ‘I’ll just make it clear that I never did anything like that with her. I’ve no idea if it was some kinky little fantasy of hers that she thankfully never shared with me, or whether it was his thing and she was happy to go along with it. Either way, dressed up as dogs was some serious messed up shit.’

‘I assume that was the end for you both?’

‘Definitely. She moved out that night.’

‘Wow! Completely different scenario to how I found out about Scott but equally grim. Did you love her?’

I thought for a moment. ‘Yes. Or at least I thought I had until I met Nikki. No, I did. We had a very different relationship to the one I had with Nikki, which is inevitable as they were like chalk and cheese, but I did love Kirsty so I was pretty destroyed by what she did.’

‘Would you have taken her back?’

‘No. There was no way I could trust her after what I caught her doing and, without trust, there was no future for us. I’d have been questioning every text she sent, every phone call she made, every night out she supposedly had with the girls. I’d have worried about her at work too because plenty of gossip came to light afterwards about what she got up to in her breaks. If I’d taken her back, there’d have been jealousy, arguments, name-calling. It would have turned nasty.’ I took a sideways glance at Jemma. Her brow was furrowed and I realised I might have put my foot in it as she’d taken Scott back. But they were very different situations.

‘Kirsty begged me to take her back,’ I continued. ‘She walks her Nana’s dog on North Bay every Sunday and I always seemed to bump into her when I was walking or running. It was a different technique each time from tears to seduction to pleading temporary insanity because she loved me so much and couldn’t bear being away from me. I never understood that logic. If you miss someone, you send them a text, you look at a photo, you sniff their clothes. You don’t play a game of hide the sausage dressed as a canine.’

Jemma started giggling. ‘Sorry, Sam, I don’t mean to laugh. It’s just that…’ She was laughing so much, she couldn’t finish the sentence. Unlike Nikki’s deep belly laugh, Jemma’s laugh sounded more like a Smurf on helium, and it was unbelievably infectious. I had to concentrate so hard to keep the campervan in a straight line while I laughed along with her. Why hadn’t I seen it before? It was hilarious when I thought about it.