Tears filled Karen’s eyes and she quickly swiped at them. ‘Look at me. I barely knew the guy and it’s set me off. How are you feeling?’

I shrugged. Glancing round Blue Savannah at the laughing couples, families and groups of friends, my eyes rested on the booth where I’d introduced Scott to their full English breakfast. I could almost see him sitting there, smiling at me, telling me he loved the breakfast but he loved me more. He was always saying things like that.

I turned back to Karen. ‘I’m a bit numb at the moment.’

‘Will you scatter his ashes?’

‘Yes, but not yet. I don’t think it’s healthy to have a box of someone’s ashes sat at home like some sort of shrine. I don’t know where I’ll do it, though. He really liked Whitsborough Bay but he’d only been here three times so we didn’t have a special place as such. I’ll need to think.’

‘You know I’m here for you if you want company when you do it,’ Karen said.

‘I know. I appreciate it.’ I sipped on my pint.

‘A toast?’ Karen suggested, raising her glass of tonic water.

I raised my glass. ‘To Scott, taken far too soon.’ My eyes blurred as I took a sip. The lump in my throat was so big, I could barely swallow.

‘Have you told your mum?’ Karen asked.

‘Not yet. I wanted her to enjoy her relaxation day. I’ll tell her tomorrow.’

‘When I was doing yoga with her on Wednesday, she was like a different woman.’

At least I could smile about that. ‘All thanks to Sam. Another strongly worded complaint has gone to the hospital about that idiot Dr Steadman. I can’t believe he didn’t do that dementia test on her after the Fountain Street incident. If it hadn’t been for Sam going completely out of his way to help her, I don’t know where we’d be.’

‘What’s next for you two?’

‘Sam and me? I don’t know. Still friends. Perhaps.’

Karen frowned. ‘Why do you say “perhaps”?’

‘We met in the first place because I needed advice about Mum but I don’t need that anymore as he’s diagnosed the problem. If I’d still been living in London, we could have met up regularly. We could have scoured London together for decent real ale establishments and seen what developed. Now that I’m living here, things will probably just peter out.’

‘Bollocks!’ Karen cried, drawing attention from the tables round us.

I sank down in my seat. ‘Karen!’

‘Well, it is. You’re smitten with him. Every time you talk about him, your whole face lights up. You want to rip off his clothes and bump uglies with him.’

‘I do not! Okay, I did, but how can I even think about that after the news I got today?’