In front of me, a young man stumbles. He’s out of his head on drugs or drink. His clothes look like they belong to someone else. They’re hanging off him. When I get closer he stops and falls against the wall of the river, struggling to stay standing. The poor unfortunate guy holds out his hand and slurs something. I probably shouldn’t because this is a hotspot for muggings but I reach into my bag and pull out whatever coins I can find. His eyes are focused on my moving hand. I don’t know how much it is but I give it to him and watch him wobble as he takes it.

‘Thanks very much, Miss,’ he mumbles. I smile at him, and whisper to myself the words I say every time. The words my mother taught me when I was very young. ‘And there but for the grace of God, go I.’ Then I pull my bag closer and walk towards O’Connell Bridge and on to my apartment block.

I’m too late, Lucas has already left. Never mind. I’m sure he’ll do okay. After I replace my office clothes with a tracksuit, I switch on the TV and plonk myself down on the sofa with a glass of wine. I have nothing to do tonight so I flick through Netflix in the hope of finding something I can get lost in. Something to kill a few hours when I don’t have to think of dresses, or cakes, or flowers or dead bodies. I keep my phone at my side in case Faye rings back because I don’t want to miss her call again, even though I’m nervous about what she has to say about me staying in touch with Andriu.

Nothing on Netflix is convincing me to watch it, so I flick off the TV and close my eyes. I’m tired. I would love nothing more than a full night’s sleep.

A short time later the ringing of my phone jolts me back to consciousness. It’s Faye.

‘How is he?’ she says, straight away, without leading into it.

‘Andriu?’

‘Yes Andriu, how is he?’

I shouldn’t be surprised that’s her first question. She got quite a shock when she heard I was still in touch with him. Faye probably thought she’d never hear or see from Andriu again. She was very much in love with him. I remember that much. They seemed like the perfect couple. Not all hugs and kisses and get-a-room kind of couple, which, as the third wheel on the bicycle, would have probably made my life hell. It was more the way they really seemed to care about one another that impressed me. They planned everything around what the other person liked. I never once heard them fighting until that dreadful night.