‘This is Patti. This is why I kept away.’ Her eyes fill with tears and she shakes her head. ‘It’s been hard for me. I had to move away. My mates didn’t understand. I’ve moved in with Patti. I didn’t know how you’d feel about it.’

I look at her. Patti. One of the bridesmaids.

‘So you’re …?’

‘Gay. Yes. You can say it out loud, you know.’

‘My God. Is that all this is? I thought you were going to say that you had slept with Jack after all. God, Paula, as long as you are happy, I’m happy.’

A tear rolls down her cheek and drops onto a small pile of boxes at her feet.

‘I wasn’t sure how you’d react. It all looked so perfect, your life, and I was scared of telling you in case you didn’t understand. But it turned out that you were struggling just as much as me.’ She sits down heavily. ‘We could have helped each other.’

I take her hand.

‘We can now.’

I make something to eat and, later on, when it’s properly dark, I push made-up Monica’s laptop, saved from burning in the hole by my obsession with Facebook, in my bag and we head for the trams. I feel a little bit sad that this will be my last time as Monica. I log on and it’s incredible. The #allgirlstogether thread is so long now that it’s impossible to read it all. I switch on my mobile and there’s a call from a TV researcher asking if I would consider giving my point of view.

A couple of days ago I would have done, but not now. Even if Emma goes back on her word, it’s the end. It is. I delete the message and go back to the Facebook thread. I hover over the delete button, but change my mind. I’ll deactivate the accounts instead. That way it will always be there. Just in case.

I go to made-up Monica’s account and scroll through it. I’m listening to my cheating bastard playlist with Paula, an earphone each like we did when we were kids, and ‘DOA’ by the Foo Fighters comes on – definitely in my top ten. I silently acknowledge High Fidelity and this difference in my state of mind since I read the journal. My anti-High Fidelity resolve, revenge rather than making peace. I know now it’s not that simple. The pictures still make me wince, but I’m used to it now. It’s been reported to Facebook for nudity and they’ve sent an email telling me to remove a particular image, the one where Jack is fucking Pam in our room.