‘You dropped something.’ He looked at the floor, next to my chair, where a small square of paper had fallen from my pocket. My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. Michael picked up the paper, read it and smirked.

‘Sofia?’ he asked. I nodded. ‘You’ve missed one.’

Michael picked up his pen, looked at me for a second as if deciding whether he should vandalise the card or not. Then he placed the paper flat on the bench, leaned over it and made a few dashes. I couldn’t see what he was writing, his body blocked my view, but it took a while. He was either writing a lot or thinking hard about very little. I fidgeted, looking back towards the door. I could hear two voices outside now.

When Michael finished, he righted himself and blew on the paper, pressing it with his thumb to check if the ink was dry. I realised what had taken so long: his contacts case was now open on the bench; he must have slid them in to write better. Then he crossed the room (I’m ashamed to admit my pulse thundered in my neck as he did so) and handed me the bingo card. I snatched it out of his hand and examined it. I felt strangely possessive of my bingo boxes, that he’d somehow invaded mine and Sofia’s private game, so I wanted to assess the damage. He’d taken so long I was sure he’d have done more, but it was just the one change. He’d crossed through Someone Dies.

‘Don’t lose that. I’m trusting you. I’m not asking you to believe me, I’m just asking you to look closely.’ I looked at the keys in my other hand, wondering what I’d see in the truck. Look closely. Then I realised he was standing near enough now to give in to a husky, intimate confession, the one I wanted most to avoid. He swallowed. ‘And, listen, with Erin . . .’

‘Don’t—’ I tried to stop him.

He trampled my words. ‘We didn’t plan for it to happen or anything.’

Temptation got the better of me. I have a problem with peering into other people’s hotel rooms, after all. ‘Did she tell you we were trying to start a family? Did she tell you about the doctors, the clinics? What it was that broke us? Tell me it’s not just about that. I could have given her what she wanted. Tell me it’s about more than that.’

‘Ern—’

Sanity arrived. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to know. Besides, I spent quite a bit of your money.’ (I hadn’t spent that much. And I wasn’t proud of it. I just wanted to have the last venomous word.) ‘I guess I didn’t plan that either.’