It was on one of those nights at Emerson’s Book Arcade in Soho. Jimmy was standing in the Chinese-language section. She was trying to read to him from an old-timey joke book she’d found: ‘If all the girls at this party were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.’ But he wasn’t laughing – or even listening. He was holding a slim, dusty-looking book, and had an odd expression on his face.

‘What is it?’

He wouldn’t say. He didn’t buy the book, but slotted it back on the shelf. That was when, under the bright lights, she saw his eyelid pulse. Was it a vein, showing itself under the skin? It pulsed and then disappeared. Then he walked out of the shop. It was one of his father’s books, he told her later as they lay in her darkened room. ‘A book of poems.’

‘You didn’t want to buy it?’

‘No.’

Imagine looking for the book, only to leave it once he found it! Even after that, he kept up his late-night bookshop habit, searching for his father’s other books so he could refuse to buy those too.

Now it was back, that little throb, giving him away. Was this harder for him than their actual breakup?

‘Anyway,’ she went on, rationalising her position, ‘it can’t be great living with Mum.’ She wanted him to see that she had his interests at heart. ‘Doesn’t it cramp your style? Your… social life?’ She wondered whether he was seeing anyone. ‘You’re living in Mid-Levels playing happy families. How can you stand it? It’s not your speed.’

He laughed at this. ‘My social life? My speed? Come off it, Pheebs. You’re making me out to be a player, but I would have settled down if that was what you wanted. You knew that, don’t pretend. It’s what made you break things off.’

She coughed as her mineral water went down the wrong way. The damn bubbles. She looked up through watery eyes. Shaking her head, she found she couldn’t speak. He gave her a knowing smile. Was that pity in his face? She wanted to say, Now just hang on, and contest his version of events. But he stood up, pulled out his platinum Amex and paid the bill. Then he strode out into the evening, which had suddenly turned gloomy, and a squally wind swept him along with the other pedestrians in the lane.

After that, Jimmy moved out. Phoebe had already returned to Boston, but she guessed her mother helped him. Soon afterwards, Deborah brought home a dog, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. The animal promptly scratched her floors and was promptly forgiven, with an ‘Oh, you’re a naughty boy, aren’t you, Nelson.’