‘Listen to me, Pete. Anya was very lucky to get you. You’re sincere and funny and…’ She looked at him now, as objectively as she could. He wasn’t the same boy she’d grown up with anymore. He had turned into one of those men who wore his good fortune with unassuming ease. He had turned from a geeky kid into an attractive, successful man – and she’d never really noticed it until this moment. ‘The problem with you, Pete, is that you’re operating in life as if you’re still that geeky kid. You don’t seem to realise that Anya was lucky to get you. Together, you made a really striking couple.’ Then she smiled and sipped her beer.

‘What?’

‘I don’t know if I should tell you this, really, you’ll probably cast it up to me forever more.’ She shook her head, then keeping her gaze on the fire that nestled gently in the grate, said, ‘The first time I saw you together, I had to do a double-take.’ She smiled at him. That’s what friends are for, after all: making you feel better about yourself when you need it most.

‘Huh?’

‘Yep. I remember that first night we bumped into you both at the cinema in town. I noticed you first, sitting before us. I didn’t recognise you; you know how it is when you see someone you know out of context? But, you just seemed to be so… striking, you turned heads.’ It was true. She’d spotted their silhouettes first, but there was something in the way they carried themselves and then later, she’d waited to see them, hadn’t recognised Pete at first. They had been walking towards the exit and it had taken a moment to realise it was actually Pete. He’d looked like one of those men you see hanging about the Kilkenny Design Centre, all expensive casual jacket, good hair, attractive and intelligent-looking and then, of course, the spell was broken, when she realised it was just Pete.

‘You’re making fun of me now. Anya was the stunner more like,’ he said to deflect any embarrassment from himself, but still, she was glad to see, the compliment had perked him up.

‘Well, she certainly managed to turn Eddie’s head,’ Liv managed to quip.

‘I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear this, probably, but, I never really liked him very much,’ Pete said. ‘You always knew that?’

‘You were just chalk and cheese.’

‘I made the best of things because you two were together.’ He leant forward on the sofa; the movie was firmly forgotten about for now. ‘The truth is, Liv, he was never good enough for you. I have a feeling if Rachel was here, she’d have made you see sense a lot sooner.’

‘Stop it. You sound like my dad, trying to make me feel better.’