‘Okay, well, I hated how Sabrina could never talk on the phone, not even to the bank, unless she was in a room all alone, door closed. A master of secrets.’

‘I can be like that.’

‘That’s not the game.’

‘Okay. I loved how Jack painted me toenails for me when I pulled a muscle in me back.’

‘I hated how Sabrina would watch what I ate in restaurants and disapprove of my choice—’

‘Justin, I think it’s safe to say you’re better off without her. Game over.’

‘Do you feel closer to Jack?’

‘No, not at all.’

I don’t want tonight to turn awkward. Neither Justin nor I deserve that, so I giggle – the easy way out of a sticky situation – and call Justin a divvy for coming up with such a shit game. He admits defeat and all seems well.

‘I’m flying to Vietnam tomorrow,’ he tells me.

I stop giggling.

‘Jack was gonna take me there in October,’ I say. ‘Some place called Hoi An. He said it’s the most magical place, apparently.’

‘So come with me? Not with me – I didn’t mean to be so forward. But come. My flight’s to Da Nang, real close to Hoi An.’

‘No way!’

‘Yeah. I’ve been to Hanoi before, so I was gonna try out the south, make my way down to Ho Chi Minh, take another flight from there further east, maybe.’

Could this be an opportunity? What if this is what I was always supposed to do? Perhaps my trip to Bangkok was to lead me to Hoi An, to a special place Jack wanted me to see. When we’d discussed this trip as a possibility for October half term, my initial reaction had been that Vietnam was too far away for a single week’s holiday and that we should go somewhere closer. Jack disagreed, because he knew it’d be worth every single second.

Would it?

Is Hoi An where I can find peace? Say a proper goodbye to Jack?

‘Well,’ Justin yawns, stretching his lean arms above his head. ‘I guess I better head to my minus-five-star hostel, shower in the en suite bathroom I’m sharing with five or six others, and hit the sack.’

I realise I haven’t spoken for a while. The noise in my spinning head is making me feel quite sick.

‘What time’s your flight to Da Nang?’ I ask.

‘Noon.’

We split the bill and squeeze out of our bench. I open my arms wide to Justin and we hug it out, proper pals. God, it was good to find one of those, even for just one night.

‘One night in Bangkok …’ I start singing, in memory of Jack – the kind of thing he’d do.

‘Take care of yourself, Chloe.’