We sped up as we passed the group. Sam had been right – not a ‘small’ gathering by any stretch of the imagination. There had to be at least sixty people there. Poor Sam. He’d have hated it. I found myself wondering if he was still there or whether he’d managed to make his excuses to slip away.

‘Ooh, domestic,’ Karen said a few minutes after we’d passed the group. Some way ahead of us was the dark silhouette of a tall man striding down the beach away from a woman. He kept stopping, turning round, saying something to her, then walking off, but she chased after him every time.

‘Shit! Did you see that?’ Karen said. ‘I think she pushed him over.’

The man lay flat on his back on the sand and, next moment, the woman straddled him.

I grabbed Karen’s arm and pulled her to a stop. ‘I hope they’re not about to have a quickie. What should we do?’

‘Take photos and post them on Twitter?’ she suggested. ‘Kidding!’

The next set of steps off the beach were a little way past the couple. The ones behind us were unapproachable thanks to a large pool of water at the bottom of them.

‘We’ll have to creep past them,’ I whispered.

The man flipped the woman over and straddled her instead. She let out an excitable squeal. His voice carried on the wind but not clearly enough to make out any words. Moments later, he stood up.

‘Either that was super quick or he’s not interested,’ Karen whispered.

I stifled a giggle.

He put out his hand to her but she lay on the sand, propped up on her elbows.

We were close enough now to make out their conversation.

‘Last chance,’ she called to him.

‘It’s over,’ he cried. ‘It was over before I met Nikki and it will never start again. Go home, Kirsty. Leave me alone. Please.’

My heart raced. Oh my God! Sam and Kirsty.

‘You’ll regret turning me down,’ she shouted.

‘I’ll learn to live with it.’

He turned away, looking down the beach… straight at Karen and me.

44

Sam

I blinked my eyes and stared again at the two women standing a couple of feet away from me.

‘Jemma?’

She nodded uncertainly and I watched her eyes flick to the side. Shit! Kirsty!

‘It’s not what it looks like.’ I cringed as soon as the words left my lips. Isn’t that what everyone says when they get caught in an uncompromising position?

‘Aw, isn’t this lovely?’ Kirsty appeared by my side. ‘New girlfriend meets ex-girlfriend again at the shrine to the dead girlfriend.’ She placed her hand on my shoulder but I pushed it off.

‘Jesus, Kirsty! Leave me alone.’

‘You weren’t saying that five minutes ago,’ she purred.