Not that it would have made any difference. If she’d said, OK, I believe you, when Ben had first told her that it wouldn’t have warmed his tepid feelings into passion. The only passion he ever felt in connection with her was anger – not an emotion to build a relationship on. But still, if she got an opportunity, she would like to tell him that she no longer thought him capable of such a massive deception. Perhaps, if he came to Rory’s private view, there might be a chance then.

Which still left her with Toby’s letter, which she would have to reply to, and quickly, or it wouldn’t reach him. She didn’t want to find herself obliged to ask Molly for Ben’s Bristol address – it would promote a torrent of probing questions that Thea had no answers for.

Later, she sat at the kitchen table with a lined pad, thinking what to write. She had a nice card she could copy it on to when she’d finally thought it out. So far, she hadn’t got beyond ‘Dear Toby’.

Eventually, after much crossing out, starting again and making balls of paper for the puppies to chase, she came up with,

Dear Toby,

Adults don’t always behave logically and sadly, I don’t think Ben and I can go on being friends, quite. [The ‘quite’ was because in spite of everything, she couldn’t absolutely close her heart and mind to the idea.]

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends separately. You can come and stay with me any time. Molly would arrange it. [She hoped this didn’t sound furtive, or like custody arrangements.]

I do hope you and Ben are happy in Bristol, and that you don’t miss your London friends too much. The good thing is that Bristol is quite near me, so you can come and see the puppies, or make chocolate cake and pizza whenever you like.

With much love,

   your friend, Thea.

She decorated her letter with drawings of Lara and the puppies, chasing each other round the page, leaving puddles behind them. By the time she’d done all this she realised it wouldn’t fit on the card, especially if she wanted to re-create the drawings, so she just folded up the letter and sent it as it was. Toby wouldn’t criticise her for writing on lined paper and if Ben did, well, he always had disapproved of her terribly.

As she walked Lara to the postbox later, she resolved to put Ben completely out of her mind. There was so much still to do before the show that she wouldn’t have any spare thought capacity for him anyway.