‘I’ve just had a thought about why it was easier for me to say no to Kirsty,’ I said. ‘I caught her in the act. I had an adult only movie playing over and over again in my head. You only had whatever you let your imagination create for you and, if you had any sense, you wouldn’t have gone down that route.’ I glanced into the wine gums bag and spotted a black. I fished it out and handed it to Jemma.

‘Thank you. You could be right about that. I saw photos of them and that hurt so I tried to avoid thinking about them together.’

‘See. If I’d found out about Kirsty but hadn’t seen it for myself, who knows whether I’d have fallen for one of those reconciliation attempts. I suspect I would have done. I don’t think it would have lasted for long because so much came to light about all the others, but I do think that I’d have given her a second chance because that’s what you do when you love someone. You want them to take that chance and prove you were right to give them it.’

‘Which Scott absolutely didn’t do.’

‘Yeah, but he let you know this time, didn’t he? I know he stood you up but he let you know his decision that night. He didn’t ghost you again and he didn’t string you along believing he was going to leave his wife when he wasn’t going to. You should ask yourself this: If you’d sent Scott away without a second chance, would you have always wondered “what if?” I think you would.’

Jemma reached for another wine gum then paused before putting it in her mouth.

‘Another green one?’

‘No. Orange. They’re good. It’s just the green ones that offend me.’ She chewed on her wine gum and I sensed she was also chewing over what I’d said.

‘You know what you should do?’ she said, when she’d finished her sweet.

‘Remove all the green wine gums from the packet so you don’t have to face that trauma again?’

She laughed. ‘You should do that. But after that, you should leave London, return to Whitsborough Bay, and set yourself up as a mobile counsellor. You could fill Thor with soft cushions and boxes of tissues, and drive up and down the Yorkshire Coast giving out relationship advice or helping people come to terms with their relationship decisions.’

‘Me? Give out relationship advice? With my track record of the extreme measures my last two girlfriends have taken to get away from me?’

‘Seriously! Well, not really. I doubt it would pay much but you’ve just helped me loads.’

I stole a glance at Jemma to make sure she was being sincere.