‘So, what about you and Mena Swan?’ The question was out before she even realised she’d asked it. God, she could feel her cheeks flush with embarrassment. All she could do was hope he didn’t notice.

‘Old news. Nothing much to tell, really.’ He stuck his spoon into his home-made ice-cream and held it out to her for the first taste. ‘We’ve known each other since we were kids, grew up on the same street. We were very young when we married; I can’t even remember when we started seeing each other…’ He shook his head. ‘But these things, well, when you’ve known someone forever, it sounds mad, but it’s as if we outgrew each other. Mena was meeting lots of new people at work and, I suppose, I was too. We outgrew each other and we just sort of drifted apart…’ He let his words trail off.

‘I can only imagine.’ Liv couldn’t help but think he made it all sound so glamorous; it was all a far cry from being a nurse in A&E. What on earth was she doing here?

‘It was messy and emotional and the last thing either of us wanted, I think, really in the end.’ He looked at her now, and she could finally put a name to what it was that made him so attractive. It was his vulnerability. He’d had his heart broken; maybe it was still broken. Some men, she knew, never fully get over their first loves. She knew Pete was one of those. Perhaps Finn was too? Mena Swan would be a very hard woman to replace.

‘I’m so sorry.’ Suddenly, her own dessert – a medley of fruit with a chocolate sauce dripping about it – looked as appetising as a plate of snails. She hadn’t put her foot in it exactly, but it was obvious she’d certainly touched a raw nerve.

‘It is what it is.’ He shook his head. ‘We’ve both moved on, as much as we can for now.’

And, with that, it was as if someone had taken a pin to the bubble of excitement about the evening and Liv couldn’t help but feel sorry that they’d even mentioned their exes. Who on earth had brought that up as a polite topic over dinner? By the time the coffee arrived, Liv had decided that she for one was going to be cheerful; after all, there was plenty to be happy about – wasn’t she lucky to be sitting here, having a lovely meal when she could just as easily be sitting at home on her own? And somehow, they did manage to resurrect the evening from that one awkward moment. They were actually laughing about some A&E story she remembered by the time they were leaving the restaurant.