‘It was you who said “stripe me pink”.’ Laura pretended to be apologetic. ‘But I don’t think there are any ramifications.’ She sighed. Except a feeling of being used and Bridget, of course, although she wasn’t a ramification – she was the bitch from hell but she wasn’t going to think about her if she could help it; she had already spoilt something that had been really lovely.

‘There will be, I promise you.’

‘Well, I hope not.’

Monica hesitated before asking incredulously. ‘Are you sure you’re not lying about it being fantastic?’

‘Yes! I’m not saying that the second and third time weren’t even more—’

‘Three times!’

Actually, there’d been more than that, but she didn’t want to shock her friend. ‘Over quite a long period. A whole night.’

‘But he’s quite old!’

‘Thirty-five is not old!’

‘I suppose not. So now what? Are you together?’

This was the bad news. She had to keep it cheery, not give too much away – she couldn’t face Monica’s sympathy. ‘I had to go really early the next day to get my flight.’ She wasn’t going to say that leaving him that morning was the saddest thing she had ever done in her entire life. She knew that it was worth it for the happiness she’d experienced – or it would be once she’d got over the whole Bridget incident – but she wasn’t going to mention that either. ‘We didn’t have much time to talk. But he wanted you to know that he used condoms, every time.’

Monica chuckled, possibly sensing that Laura was trying to make light of the situation. ‘You must congratulate him when you next see him.’ She paused, glancing briefly at her friend. ‘When are you seeing him again?’ She wasn’t going to let Laura off that easily.

Laura bit her lip. ‘I’m not sure. We didn’t actually get round to talking about the festival. I don’t know if he’s coming or not. After all the publicity erupted he said the festival could take a flying jump.’

‘Bugger the festival! What about you and him?’

‘We didn’t talk about when we might see each other again.’

‘What?’ Monica gave her a quick look. ‘Not at all? You just got in the taxi and went to the airport? How often has he been in touch since?’

‘He rang me when I was at the airport. Just to see if I’d got there safely.’ He’d sounded strange on the phone but that may have been because she’d been very cool with him. She hadn’t really wanted to speak to him again, not until she’d got her feelings in order.

‘And since?’ Monica was sniffing out the bad bits of Laura’s story like a truffle-hound.