‘Oh, I don’t like to brag,’ said Shona, unable to keep a straight face. She’d not seen Pam this tipsy in ages. Pam downed her drink and pulled Dermot by the hand. ‘Come on, Dermot. Dance with me to this one. It’s Irish, you know.’

‘That I know, Pam,’ said Dermot, rising to the occasion with a smile. He let Pam pull him off his seat, and went to dance with her. ‘You’ll see if I was lying about those arms, now,’ he said in an aside to Shona as he got up.

Much later, Shona left the pub, swaying just a tiny bit. As she tip-tapped up the street in her smart heels, she heard someone shouting her name behind her. ‘Shona!’ Dermot called. ‘Hold up!’ He ran up to her. ‘Isn’t your husband picking you up?’

‘No, there’s a concert he wanted to listen to this evening, and I didn’t want to bother him. I thought I’d just get the bus. I don’t think you or anyone else is in a fit state to give me a lift tonight,’ Shona said. ‘Are you heading back to the pub?’

‘No, I think I’ll call it a night, too. I’ll walk you to the bus stop. It’s on my way to the station.’

‘Sure,’ said Shona, although she had already kissed him goodbye that night, on the cheek. She had kissed everyone on the cheek before she left the pub. It was unusually affectionate for her, and proof that she was a little tipsy, but then it was Christmas.

They walked together wordlessly, until Dermot broke the silence by saying, ‘I should apologize to you, Shona. I lied to you when we first met.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ve lied to you thousands of times. Everytime I’ve said Nice day, Nice haircut, Nice assembly, Nice class. Thousands of times,’ she said lightly, wondering why she was suddenly being so frank.

‘No, really, this is important. I never lie, and I really don’t want to have lied to you.’

‘What was it?’ Shona said, amused at the passion in his tone.

‘When I said I didn’t really have any children. That was a lie. I did have a child once. She was premature. She died the same day she was born. That was eight years ago.’ He said it matter-of-factly. ‘I know I was only a father for a day, but I was a father once, and I shouldn’t have lied.’