‘Well, it had to be something important or you wouldn’t have said it was something you should have told me straight away. Actually I kind of guessed on our first date but thought I’d wait and let you tell me when you were ready.’

‘Seriously?’

He gives a lopsided grin as he loads another helping of curry onto her plate, lumps of bright white fish in an orange sauce, a grin that says, of course, what do you take me for?

‘My little girl, she’s called Estella, can I show you? Sorry, if you don’t have kids, it’s really boring, I know …’

She has her phone out of her handbag before she’s finished her sentence. Her face is alight with love and as she’s looking down at the phone she doesn’t see the expression on Matty’s face, but I do.

She holds the phone up to him and he breaks into a huge smile. He takes the phone out of her hand and examines the photo. ‘Oh my God, she’s gorgeous! She looks so cheeky!’

‘She certainly is, right little madam, no doubt who the boss is …’ The young woman is smiling from ear to ear as she says this, her shoulders down and relaxed. She reaches out a hand to take her phone back but Matthew holds onto it, still looking at it, and begins swiping.

After four swipes he says, ‘And who’s this?’ He turns the phone to face his new date but does not relinquish it.

‘Oh,’ the young woman’s face becomes less animated, ‘that’s Estella’s dad … We split up a year ago.’

‘But you’ve still got a photo of him on your phone.’

‘She goes to his place every Friday after school, comes back to me Saturday afternoons, sometimes the whole weekend or weeknights too, we don’t really have a proper routine for it. It’s okay, but …’ She shrugs and looks down at her plate, picks up her fork and pushes a tail of spinach around in a circle. ‘You know, it’s never easy.’

‘Why do you still have a picture of him on your phone?’

*