‘That’s funny, because I thought, you know, when you lived together, when you shared everything you had with another person, it meant more than just – nothing?’ She turned away from him, determined not to cry. She would not give him or Anya the satisfaction of going over this later and laughing at her. She took a deep breath. ‘You know what? Maybe you’re right,’ she said, fixing her stare at a poster of some obscure heavy metal band that she assumed had been pinned to Eddie’s wall twenty years earlier and had, like herself, become part of his life that he didn’t notice anymore. ‘Maybe we can be grown-up about this.’ The hardness in her voice sounded alien to her and she felt as much as heard Eddie catch his breath behind her back. ‘I want you out of my flat by the end of the week. I want my keys back and as far as I’m concerned, we’ll leave it at that.’

She knew Maya would have wanted her to press him for an astronomical amount of rent back-paid, just to put the wind up him, but Liv’s anger didn’t stretch far enough beyond devastation to play that sort of game.

‘You’re angry; you have things all confused. I’m not… It didn’t mean anything; it was just a fling. Surely we can…’ And then he stopped, catching something of her determination on the air, the truth of his situation finally hitting him. ‘You can’t just ask me to leave.’

‘I’m not asking you to leave, Eddie, I’m telling you; find somewhere else because you’re not living in my flat anymore.’

‘Now, listen here, Liv Latimer’ – Barbara was behind her, her expression livid, her voice finally revealing the dislike that Liv had always pretended not to recognise – ‘you can’t just swan in here and tell my son he’s homeless. He has rights, as a tenant, as a… common law husband.’ Eddie for his part had shrunk further down beneath his quilt at the mention of the word husband, common law or otherwise.

‘Actually, Barbara, I can, because it’s my flat and he’s been seeing Anya Hegarty for weeks, probably months behind my back, and so his place is with Anya, not sleeping each night in my bed.’

‘But Anya has nowhere to live either and…’ Eddie sounded pathetic now.