‘Oh please, Liv, seriously, when have you ever had to think about what to say to Pete? Just ring him and say you’re sorry. Say you overreacted and don’t be afraid to say, on this occasion, he was right and…’ she lowered her voice to a loud joking whisper ‘… you were wrong.’

‘Okay, well, the least you could do is make me a cup of tea and give a girl a bit of privacy.’ Liv sat down at the dressing table, stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked a complete wreck. The hairdressing appointment that she’d squeezed in a few days before Christmas might as well have never happened; her skin looked as dry as toast; and her eyes – oh, dear, she looked forty, if she looked a day, too much crying and not enough beauty sleep. Eddie Quirke was not worth that, she decided, and as of today, she wasn’t wasting another hour of sleep over him.

‘Hi.’ Pete sounded as if he was distracted when he answered after the third ring.

‘Hey, just ringing because…’

‘I know, it’s all right. The word seems to be out around the village now; apparently, they spent last night too drunk to realise they were wrapped around each other in Flannelly’s.’

‘I’m so sorry, Pete, I just…’

‘It’s okay, you didn’t want it to be true and to be fair, it did come out of the blue. I probably could have broken it a bit more gently.’

‘I’m not sure there is a gentle way to break news like that.’

‘Well, it is what it is now, I suppose.’ He was matter-of-fact, no joking about this time, and Liv felt as if perhaps, even though he was being very nice, he wasn’t his usual self, far more distant and well behaved.

‘So, what are you up to for the rest of the holidays?’ she asked.

‘Oh, not a lot. Visiting Gran again before I go back, but apart from that, just counting down the days to get back to some kind of normality.’

‘I feel the same.’ She did, didn’t she? Well, she wasn’t sure exactly, but she certainly didn’t want to spend any time in the village while the great romance between Eddie and Anya was being played out so publicly and even though she loved her family dearly, there were things to sort out in the flat. Did she really want Eddie coming back in and spending hours there sorting out his stuff? Did she want to have the same conversations with him over and over? ‘Actually, I’m going to ring the hospital next and offer to go in and do any shifts that need filling between now and New Year’s.’

‘So, you’re going back early?’