‘I wanna take her and the kids into Florence tomorrow when the ship docks in La Spezia. Try and give them a nice day. Would you come with us?’

‘Come to Florence with you?’

‘Yeah. No-Mum-and-Dad day,’ he smiled, wiping his cheek roughly with the back of his hand. ‘The kids have been asking after you – Ty keeps on about his “Best Friend Hilly”.’

My chest glowed from the inside out. ‘Yeah, I love that little dude.’

‘And, well, anything you can do to perk Jayde up, would be magic too. We’ll pay for your ticket, of course. Unless you’ve got something on?’

I pulled the cracked iPhone 4 out of my tracksuit. Having a full signal was reason enough to leave the ship and going on an excursion but with the Prossers in toe would at least afford me some kind of anonymity. ‘I’m free as a kookaburra, mate. Course I’ll join you. Wild roos wouldn’t keep me away.’

Another wave of emotion had taken him over and he was rolling with the tide. And it took me a few moments to realise this would probably be the moment to hug him. So I hugged him – more for me than for him. And he gripped on tightly – definitely more for him than for me.

Thursday, 10 January – Florence

1. People on social media who are all: ‘Eight days till my wedding!’ ‘Eleven months till our holiday!’ ‘Eighteen more years till my kid puts me in a care home!’ ‘Ten more minutes till I drive a stake through your ear.’
2. Anyone who uses a selfie stick
3. Anyone who wears sandals with feet that look like they’ve been dug up by an archaeologist
4. Snap-happy blonde on the bus to Florence who had discovered her iPhone had a camera – ‘Ooh an Italian drainpipe’, ‘ooh some Italian monument’, ‘ooh an Italian tramp having a shit in a doorway.’
5. Our excursion leader Doreen – ‘You understand where we meet, yes?’ ‘You hear time we back at bus, yes?’ ‘You enjoy yourself, yes?’ I didn’t know which were questions and which were direct orders
6. Learner drivers – here’s your first lesson. Use your fucking accelerator

The ship docked in La Spezia at 8.30 a.m. for the day’s excursions to Florence. But even when the iPhone had achieved full signal, there were still no messages from Dannielle Fairly. No voicemails, texts, no nothing.

Tu piezza di merda!

Fottuta stronza inutile!

Spero che tuo padre morto si alzi dalla tomba e faccia una merda nella tua vasca da bagno!

At least I had enough signal to look up Italian ways of saying she was a useless bitch and that I hoped her dead dad rose again to do a shit in her bathtub.