It wasn’t like Jason to have free time during the day, but the fact he did – and that he wanted to meet up with me and Joni – gave me a spring in my step. This was the new Jason I’d seen over the past few weeks. Perhaps he wanted to take us for lunch. He seemed really invested in putting more into our relationship.

As I neared the bandstand, I saw Jason’s familiar figure walking towards me. When he saw me, his pace seemed to slow. I lifted my hand and smiled. As he got closer, I realized that he didn’t seem to be smiling back. His expression was hard to make out but, if anything, he looked stressed. I hoped something bad hadn’t happened.

As he approached us I could see he was sweating. He looked hot and panicky and it wasn’t a particularly warm day.

‘Aisha,’ he exclaimed when he reached me, ‘I’m so glad you could come.’ He was shaking and there was an urgent tone to his voice.

‘Baby, what’s up, are you okay?’ I asked. My first thought was his parents or sister. ‘Has something happened?’

He took the pram from my hands, and steered it towards a bench – one of those in a circle around the bandstand area. We sat down.

‘There is something I have to tell you,’ he said slowly and gravely. He looked at me with a fear and sorrow in his eyes that I had never seen before. It scared me. What was going on?

‘I’ve made a terrible mistake,’ he began, his voice faltering. ‘There is no easy way of saying this.’

I let out a short burst of sound – an involuntary gasp.

He continued: ‘I bumped into an old girlfriend on the Tube last September. A few drinks led to a one-night stand. Aisha, I bitterly regret it. It was one night of madness; we only slept together once. I can barely remember the details because I was so drunk. I’m sorry. So desperately sorry.’

A burning heat moved upwards from my chest to my face and I felt my cheeks flush and my heart pound. ‘Jason, what? You’re joking, right? This isn’t very funny.’

If only it was an unfunny joke.

‘There’s more. She got pregnant. She’s had the baby now and we have taken a paternity test, but I don’t have the result yet. I’m really scared, Aisha. I’m petrified I could be the father of this baby.’

With tears in his eyes and shaking hands, he told me that he couldn’t keep it a secret any longer.

I listened in silence. The fact we were stood here in such a familiar spot suddenly felt utterly surreal given the enormity of what he had just said.

‘Do I know her?’ I asked, as calmly as I could.

‘I’m afraid so,’ he bowed his head. ‘It’s Lucy.’

‘Lucy from The Baby Group?’

His facial expression told me the answer.

I was floored. ‘Seriously? No, I don’t believe you. It can’t be. Lucy and I, we, we’re friends.’ The words hung in the air, sounding ridiculous and completely at odds with what he had just said. ‘It can’t be true.’