Only, she wasn’t minding her own business. Not any more. Because there, at a table for two in the opposite corner, if she wasn’t very much mistaken, was Prue’s ex-boyfriend, the one who had led her on and turned her down and driven her away from home because of it. The one Madi had met very briefly in the garden of the village hall just before his father had won first prize for his wine. What was the lad called again? Joe. That was it. And yes, that was definitely him. And he was not alone. She watched as his hand reached across the table and closed around the long slender fingers of his companion, a pale, thin, but rather gorgeous young man whose face he seemed unable to take his eyes from.

Ah! Well that explained a lot, didn’t it? Not that it was any of Madi’s business, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for Prue, who, presumably, had no idea.

Joe looked up as the door opened yet again, and so did she. And this time it was Tom. He walked straight towards her, smiling, totally oblivious to who was sitting just a few tables away, but Joe had spotted him all right. When Madi next looked his way, Joe’s hand was very much back on his own half of the table, clutching his cup far more tightly than was strictly necessary, and he had turned his chair by a few degrees so all Tom would see if he should happen to look their way was his back view, pretty much indistinguishable from that of any other office worker taking an early lunch with a friend.

‘I wonder if they have any pies?’ Tom said, picking up the second menu and reading through it eagerly. ‘Oh, and I’ve ordered a new pair, by the way. Glasses, that is. Not pies! Fancied a change … so I went for bright pink, with diamante arms.’

‘Sorry. What?’

‘You’ve not listened to a word I’ve said, have you?’

‘Sorry.’

‘So you said.’ He looked at her inquisitively, but she didn’t attempt to explain what had taken her attention elsewhere. ‘Now, what are you having?’

By the time they had eaten and Tom was sorting out the bill, Joe and his friend had gone. Madi hadn’t seen them leave, and presumably neither had Tom.

‘So, where now?’ she said as they stepped back out into the street.

‘Socks. And lots of them!’

Madi laughed. ‘I wouldn’t mind a few pairs myself. I thought maybe pink, with diamantes.’

‘So you were listening?’

‘Of course. Just distracted for a moment, that was all.’

‘Penny for them,’ Tom said, stopping so abruptly on the pavement that Madi walked right into him.

‘Oh, it’s nothing. Come on, we’re at M&S, so let’s do socks. Sock it to me, Tom!’

‘Now there’s an offer a man doesn’t get every day,’ Tom said as they entered through the big glass doors. ‘We can buy matching pairs. His and hers. But I bet mine are bigger than yours.’