I smiled at her. ‘Well, if there’s definitely no snakes…’

Her eyes widened. ‘You’ll do it? You’ll meet Jemma?’

I nodded.

‘Oh my God! That’s fantastic. She’s had such a crap time of it recently and she could do without stressing about this as well. Can we swap numbers?’

She tapped my number into her phone. ‘Thanks Indy. No rest for the wicked. If you’re free mid to late next week, that would be awesome.’

‘I’m sure I can manage something.’

Tiff grinned and blew me a kiss. ‘You superstar. By the way, I’m thinking we can do better than the occasional catch-up over a canteen coffee. Why don’t I introduce you to my cousin, Drew, and the three of us can go for drinks after work one night?’

Small steps… ‘Sounds good.’

‘The only rule is that you can’t talk shop. I’ll tell you about my latest Tinder disasters, Drew will witter on about comics and you can tell us about your fiancée. We need a proper getting to know you night out.’

I had to do it. It was the perfect moment. Okay, it wasn’t really as we were in the canteen at work surrounded by colleagues who might overhear. I didn’t want the sympathy vote for being the doctor who fled to London because he couldn’t cope with living in the town that reminded him too much of his dead fiancée. But it was a moment and I needed to take it. I took a deep breath. ‘About that—’

‘Shit! Is that the time?’ Tiff leapt to her feet and grabbed her food and phone off the table. ‘I’m late. Sorry, Sam. Can you tell me later?’ Without waiting for an answer, she power-walked out of the canteen.

Bollocks. Another moment lost. I just hoped she didn’t think I’d been lying to her when I did finally get the opportunity to confess. I couldn’t bear people who lied, like my ex, Kirsty, who’d lied to me throughout our relationship. I wasn’t that guy. I had to set the record straight next time I saw Tiff. Top priority.

17

Jemma

I’d no sooner got off the train on Thursday evening, ready for a long weekend at home, when I was jumped on. ‘Whoa! Logan-paws! You nearly knocked me over.’ I wrapped my arms round my little brother. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’ve missed you,’ he said, clinging onto me like a limpet.

‘Where’s Mum?’

‘Waiting in the car park. There weren’t any spaces.’

‘How is she?’

Logan just squeezed me tighter and I kissed the top of his head. ‘Don’t worry. I’m home for four days. We’ll have plenty of time to talk.’