‘I can’t do that, or at least not just yet. I have to oversee things over here.’

‘Have you ever been?’

I shook my head.

‘Think about it then, in the summer maybe, though I think November to April are the best months. You’d like it there and, of course, I can show you round all the spots the tourists never see.’

‘Tempting but what about you? You got married? Run a bar?’

‘I manage a couple of bars now. I like the lifestyle over there and the climate but … I don’t know, I may relocate, come back here. I’m undecided but I feel like I’m ready for a change. Er … what else can I tell you? I was married to Celia, still am, though we’re not together, haven’t been for ages. We’re still good friends.’

‘Why still married then?’

‘Just haven’t got round to doing the legal bit, but it’s all happening now, in fact, because she’s got herself another fellow and wants to remarry.’ He laughed. ‘So much to catch up on. Where do we start?’

‘Children?’ I was about to add, Did you ever have Moonbeam and Star?, but I bit it back.

His face clouded. ‘A boy, Dylan.’

‘Is he in Thailand with you?’

‘He is now.’

‘Now? You mean he wasn’t?’

‘He lived with his mother in Australia after we’d split up, but he visited regularly or I went to them.’

‘So he’s with you more permanently now?’

‘Not exactly with me. He’s been a complete and utter idiot. He got involved with a bad crowd on his last visit, into the drug scene; it’s not wise to have anything remotely to do with drugs over there. Truth is, Bea, he’s been in prison for a year.’

‘I am sorry.’

‘So am I. Thai jails are not like over here. Not an experience he’ll want to repeat. He came out to see me for a break then got persuaded to be a mule, to carry drugs back to Australia. Not a large amount, his sentence would have been worse if it had been. It was stupid and naïve of him to think he could get away with it. The police picked him up at the airport.’

‘I am sorry,’ I repeated.

‘This too will pass,’ he said, as much to himself as to me. ‘He’ll get out and at least he has learnt his lesson.’

‘I imagine it’s been hard for you too, visiting him.’