As we step out of the villa and into the sunshine we come face to face with Ali and Marty, kissing in the doorway of my suite.

‘Good morning,’ Marty announces with a boastful yawn.

‘Morning,’ I reply, before turning to Freddie and lowering my voice. ‘I’ll just go ask Ali what she was thinking.’

‘Yeah, send similar regards from me,’ he says through the gritted teeth of a fake smile.

I hurry past Marty, ushering my bestie back inside. I close the door behind us.

‘What are you doing?’ I ask her.

‘Kissing,’ she says simply. ‘By the way, happy birthday! Your present is at home.’

‘I meant in a more general sense,’ I clarify. ‘Don’t change the subject. You said you didn’t fancy him… but thank you very much, that’s very kind of you.’

I struggle to maintain the sternness in my voice.

‘I didn’t,’ Ali replies. She hugs herself thoughtfully. ‘I kind of don’t but… I don’t know. He was right, I guess. He is charming sometimes. He’s got good banter, he kept me on my toes all night.’

‘Yeah, that’s definitely what it sounded like from next door,’ I joke.

‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘I don’t know – you know when you meet someone and you’re just like “that’s a bit of me, that is”?’

‘Yeah. You said that about Max a matter of days ago,’ I remind her.

‘That was physical,’ she says. ‘Physically Marty is maybe not my type, I guess, because he’s a little older… but…’

I see something in Ali that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. She shuffles awkwardly on her feet, her cheeks blush slightly… she’s embarrassed.

‘You actually like him,’ I point out. ‘Sometimes I’m not even sure if you like me, and I’m your best friend, but with this guy… you just like him.’

‘Please don’t tell anyone,’ she insists. ‘Definitely don’t tell him. I don’t know what to do with it yet.’

‘Of course, I won’t,’ I tell her.

‘This is your fault,’ she tells me, sounding a little pissed off all of a sudden. ‘You caught feelings for Freddie and now you’ve passed it on to me. I’ve caught feelings for Marty.’

‘You can’t catch feelings,’ I tell her. ‘But… if you could… yeah, I’ve definitely caught them for Freddie. What the hell am I going to do?’

‘He’s clearly into you,’ she assures me. ‘And he’s such a good person. He doesn’t have a secret wife or keep a mini tripod in his pocket for making X-rated home movies…’

‘I really hope you’re not talking about Marty, but I’m almost certain you are.’

‘You know, he actually is separated from his wife,’ Ali tells me in hushed tones. ‘We had a chat last night, about how they’re not together, how he misses his kids. He got really emotional and normally that would turn me right off but, I don’t know, all I wanted to do was comfort him, stop him sobbing.’

‘It wasn’t sobbing I heard last night,’ I insist.