‘Scott Hastings is the name of the male lead. When I met you, I’d had the challenge for months and hadn’t had the opportunity to use it so it just came out. You were a stranger on a tube platform and I thought it wouldn’t matter. I wasn’t expecting things to progress with us and, when they did, how could I tell you that I’d lied about my name?’

‘Plus, it meant I wasn’t going to find out about your wife online, didn’t it?’

He shrugged. ‘I suppose so but I didn’t set out to do it. You have to believe me.’

I stared at him, my emotions in turmoil. It all sounded very plausible – one of those moments where you say or do something that you think will have no impact yet it actually does. But he’d still lied about being married.

I stood up. ‘I need a drink. Do you want anything?’

‘I’d love a coffee.’

‘Stay here.’

I headed into the kitchen area and busied myself boiling the kettle for Scott and pouring a glass of wine for me. I gulped it down then poured another large one.

Returning to the lounge area, I handed him his drink and returned to the armchair, far away from him. ‘I can see how the Scott Hastings thing happened and I can see how awkward it would be telling me you’d made it up. But what I can’t see is how you slept with me that night when you were married.’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

I shrugged. ‘No. Ooh, don’t tell me. You’d had an argument with your wife and you couldn’t help yourself. Or perhaps she didn’t understand you like I did, or whatever excuse it is that men use to justify their infidelity.’

He put his mug down on the coffee table and stayed leaning forwards. ‘Why did you sleep with me that first night?’

‘What?’

‘It’s not a trick question. There must have been a reason because, let’s face it, I was a stranger who you might never see again, and I know that you’d never had a one-night-stand. I remember you telling me that it usually took weeks, if not months, before you took that step with a boyfriend. So, why did you sleep with me that first night?’

My cheeks flushed as I muttered, ‘Because I fell in love with you.’