Eddie and she were good. Fine, so their relationship had never exactly been what she’d always dreamed of, but she wanted to marry him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him – didn’t she? Now that it felt as if it might be slipping away from her, Liv felt it more keenly: this idea that she wanted to settle down, have a family, buy a proper house, start the next phase of her life. With Eddie.

She was sure of it. The more that niggling little doubt dug into her thoughts, the more she imagined herself stamping on it, like a smouldering fire that she couldn’t possibly allow to take light in her imagination.

She would have it out with him. She had to have it out with him; she needed to hear him deny it. She needed him to tell her that he loved her, just this once. She needed him to go down on bended knee and convince her that she hadn’t wasted years of her life on him.

And yet, in her mind’s eye, she just couldn’t see it.

She couldn’t see him on bended knee. She couldn’t imagine him waiting at the altar for her. She couldn’t even imagine him in a dress suit – never mind actually standing there and proclaiming to their families and friends that he loved her and he wanted to spend the rest of his life cherishing her. Hah.

He’d never cherished anything more than his time down in Flannelly’s with his mates, getting paralytic on too much beer and old stories that had been told far too often already.

Liv marched back up the farmyard. Bloody Pete. Why on earth did he have to come here telling her this today? She was so angry with him, too angry to be able to see that he’d only been looking out for her. Too angry to realise that coming here, giving her this awful news, was the mark of a real friend.

She pulled out her phone and stabbed at Eddie’s number to call. It rang out. She wanted to scream, but the truth was she could hardly breathe. ‘Oh, Eddie, what have you done?’ she said out loud. The truth was beginning to dawn on her. She began to put together a text. Where are you? Eddie, please call me, there’s something I need to… She stopped. What did she need to do, ask him or tell him?

Maybe she already knew, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself. Instead, she rang Barbara.

‘Yes?’ Barbara sounded sniffy.

‘Hi, Barbara, I’m trying to track down Eddie. You don’t happen to know where he is, do you?’

‘I haven’t seen him since yesterday, when he went off with Anya,’ she said coolly.

‘Hasn’t he called you?’