‘Look, I know everyone probably thinks that I’m just walking away from this, but really, I’ve no intention of dropping her in it with the coffee shop. We were having problems for some time. She…’ He stopped and looked up and down the street. ‘Finding out she was having a fling behind my back was the final straw, maybe just what I needed to know that things weren’t ever going to be right…’

‘Still, it doesn’t make it easy, for either of you.’

‘Strangely enough, in the end, it made it very easy for me.’ He smiled now and she supposed it was probably a relief to be free of the relationship if it was making him miserable.

‘And this other guy… will she stay with him now?’ She wanted to add, asking for a friend, because it seemed much more realistic that Anya would move in with her new boyfriend than expect to move in with her and Eddie. She didn’t say that, of course, because what was the point in adding any stress to Pete – he’d probably already had enough.

‘I doubt it; otherwise, she’d probably have left months ago.’ He shook his head, wiser but surprisingly chipper. ‘I think he’s probably married or with someone else. Right up to the end she was denying there was anything going on, but when you know, you know, right?’

‘I suppose so,’ Liv said and she looked at him now, properly looked at him. He’d changed – she hadn’t noticed in the dark of Christmas morning when he’d driven her home. He’d lost weight, but maybe it suited him. He looked more like he had when they were younger, apart from the designer glasses and expensive casual clothes. Of course, Pete had never really changed. He might look more polished than he had at school – sometimes Liv caught herself looking at him and wondering when he’d turned into such an attractive man – but underneath, he was still good old Pete. She knew that some people – well, the Barbara Quirke set at least, thought he was aloof, that his success had gone to his head. He might look uber confident, but he was actually quite shy and very funny, when you got to know him. ‘It’s just good to see you’re doing okay,’ she repeated.

‘To be honest,’ he said, leaning into the jeep, ‘it’s a big bloody relief. Who wants to live the rest of their life with someone who only wants to bleed them dry and treat them like second best?’ He held her eye for a fraction too long.

‘Who indeed?’ she said. But those words resonated with her later as she started the engine before she drove back out of the village, her thoughts far more tangled than she could understand why.

*