‘Shall we let her decide that?’ Crafty cow, not telling him about Ali earlier. He remembered her now, always flirting with him. Jealous as hell of Ali and her petite figure.

‘Why’d you leave her anyway?’ She reached down to the floor for her handbag.

‘She didn’t tell you?’

‘Always thought you two would tie the knot.’

‘You said I wasn’t the marrying kind.’

Jaz gave a smirk. ‘She disappeared, then you disappeared. So what really happened?’

‘Nothing for you to worry about.’

‘You’ll have to tell me if you want her number.’

They stared each other out, but he couldn’t help himself, he caved in and told her.

She scribbled on a pad of paper by the bed. ‘Here.’ She held it out to him and yawned.

Max looked at the numbers as if they were the winning combination for the lottery.

‘Don’t tell her,’ he waved a finger between them, ‘you know.’

‘That you slept with her friend? I’ll be sure not to mention it.’

‘Don’t say it like that. I’d just rather keep this our little secret.’

When Max reached home, he slipped into bed next to Maddy without disturbing her. He lay wide awake, heart pounding. Had he got away with it? He wasn’t bothered if he never saw Jaz again, but Ali… Ali.

The bed creaked as Maddy turned towards him, her face chubby with curved lines of sleep. He listened to her rhythmic breathing. Her eyes were shut, but he felt she was watching him. He tried to sleep, but scenes from the past played out in his mind over and over. He couldn’t block them out. It wasn’t until the first birdsong when at last sleep claimed him.

A few hours later, Max woke up. He could hear the girls playing in the garden. Ali had appeared in his dream, but not as he remembered her. She’d looked much older and he was standing by a river but she walked straight past him as though she didn’t know who he was. Did he look so different? He climbed out of bed and gazed in the mirror, drawing his hand down his mouth and stubbly chin. One or two brilliant white hairs, a few lines around his eyes. He didn’t look so bad, did he?

He went over every moment of meeting Jaz and everything he could remember afterwards. What an idiot going back to her place. A sick feeling lodged deep in his stomach that wouldn’t shift.

When he surfaced he expected to get an earful from Maddy, but she didn’t ask what time he’d come home. Sometimes it seemed like she was happier with it being just her and the girls and didn’t really care if he was around or not.