‘It doesn’t matter who owns it. I’ve been living there for over six years; you can’t just leave me homeless. There are laws about that sort of thing,’ he said and she’d never heard him so vehement before. His words, spitting down the phone, actually made her feel as if her chest was tightening just a little more with every syllable. It was scary, hearing the reality of what was ahead of them coming from his bitter words.

‘Oh, I think you’ll find I can. I’ve spoken to Maya.’ It was a complete lie.

‘Oh, of course, perfect bloody Maya; well, she would have something to say about it. She never much liked me anyway, did she? I was never quite good enough.’

‘That’s not true.’ But Liv knew it was true. It wasn’t time to think about that now, but later, she could reflect on the fact that Maya had always worried about her relationship with Eddie. It turned out she’d been right to be concerned.

‘It doesn’t matter. All my stuff is there. I still have my keys and you have no right to ring me up and just decide that you’re going to…’

‘Can’t you hear yourself?’ It had just dawned on Liv: Eddie didn’t give two hoots about the fact that she knew about his relationship with Anya. All that bothered Eddie was that he had to move out of the flat. ‘Don’t you care that…’ She stopped herself, because she wouldn’t do this. She’d let herself down enough. Now it was time to gather whatever bit of self-respect she had left about her and move on with her life.

‘Some of us don’t have the luxury of caring about much more than making ends meet at the end of the week.’

‘Oh, Eddie,’ she said. God, she’d been taken for a complete fool. She’d paid all his bills. She’d put a roof over his head, for free, and yet, he always had enough money for designer trainers and to spend his Christmas holidays from opening to closing time in Flannelly’s pub getting drunk with his mates. She wanted to ask him about that ring, but she had some small sense of pride left. She needed to forget she’d ever seen it, pretend that some small part of her didn’t believe he’d made it for Anya.

‘Don’t Oh, Eddie me, who on earth do you think you are? First off, you don’t even bother to come home for Christmas and even if you had, it’s not as if you’d want to do anything with me.’ His words fell off. The only place he ever wanted to spend time in Ballycove was at the pub. ‘And then, you ring me up and accuse me of…’