I entered the Victorian-style doorway to find one of their hugely popular workshops in full swing. Several women were seated around two large tables, heads bent over balls of wool, needles clacking in time to their animated conversations. Linda stood up as soon as she saw me, automatically pausing to compliment someone’s handiwork before striding over to where I hovered by the counter.

‘How’s she doing?’ Linda grimaced, her lilac glasses halfway down her nose. She shared Mum’s wiry frame and narrow features, but her hair, far more salt than pepper, was invariably wound up in a plaited bun, into which she’d have stuck a crochet hook, or a random ribbon.

‘She’d made an amazing recovery by the end of the evening.’

‘Oh, love.’ She gave my arm a sympathetic squeeze. ‘There’s tea in the pot, and plenty of cake.’ She moved over to the refreshment counter, setting out two large, flowery mugs.

‘What do you think would happen to her if I ever moved out?’ I asked, causing Linda to pause, still holding the teapot in mid-air.

‘I think you need to focus on what it would mean for you, and your life.’ She eyed me carefully. ‘Leave your mum to worry about herself.’

The previous evening, as we’d eaten the curry in front of a romantic comedy that made me feel more like crying than laughing, I had thought of little else.

‘I’m scared to even consider how she’d cope without me.’

‘Moving out doesn’t mean severing all contact. It’s what most people do, Ollie. Find their own place to live, pop back home at the weekend and Christmas, like your cousins.’

‘But if her “pains” are bad again, I’ll end up back home so often it would be easier not to bother leaving.’

‘What’s the alternative? Stay, and sacrifice your happiness for hers?’

‘I’m not unhappy…’

My aunt rolled her eyes. ‘Only because you don’t allow yourself to feel anything much at all. I don’t want to presume that you hope to have a family one day. But it was something you used to talk about a lot, when you were with Jonathan.’

Jonathan.

Hearing his name still made my heart clench.

We took our drinks and cake over to an empty table and sat down. ‘I do want to meet someone. I have a whole list of things I’ve dreamt of doing when I can finally move out. Things I don’t want to do with my mother.’

Linda raised one eyebrow. ‘Oh yes?’