Dave, again, most likely. She’d told me about him at long last. I could have let her know I’d been spying on them both, had already seen his Johnson. Instead, I nodded and said, ‘Sounds good. An architect? Wow. Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah.’ He’d been at our house on Saturday evening while I was at Biddy’s. They’d ridden each other – just the usual, the kids sleeping soundly, Sarah reaching for the condoms … Sounds good. Would it last? Probably not. Sounds ace.

She’d sung me his praises on Monday evening – ‘He really makes me laugh, Chris’ – before telling me about another Tinder suitor, Derek Dickie. Who the fuck? How had he slipped through the net? ‘Don’t laugh,’ she’d said, on telling me his name. I hadn’t. Derek was married, like us, had two young children, like us, was new to the challenges of ethical non-monogamy, like us – although Sarah was fast approaching doyenne status. She might meet him at the weekend, just for a coffee, if I could look after the kids. Yeah, nah, I couldn’t. I had Meredith, remember. Sorry …

A ping and pop-up window from Facebook: Mel, who I didn’t like anymore, had created a Friends of Zac group. She wrote: Don’t suppose anyone heard from him last night? I waited by the phone again – nothing :(

Shit. I wrote: Oops, sorry, yeah, he called us!

From Mel: Holy shit, Chris, how was he???

Looking at the group members, I knew Mel, Jia, Josh, Sarah, Jacqui, Biddy, but there were people I’d never heard of. Who was Sandra Peattie? Ethan Jeyaratnam. Peter Toth. Zac had never mentioned them. And here they were, on my screen. His friends.

I wrote: Yeah, so … He said he’s been meditating (Sarah’s recommendation!). He’s getting plenty of sun, working on the prison farm. He’s washing dishes in the evenings, which gives him some (not much!) money to spend in the prison shop. But he actually sounded pretty happy, all things considered.

Sarah said she thought he sounded depressed. I’d thought the same but didn’t want to agree with her.

From Jacqui: Praise the lord! Thanks for letting us know, Chris X

The night I first slept with Biddy, Zac had slept with Jacqui but hadn’t really wanted to – they were high, she was lonely, and he’d felt, I don’t know, weirdly obliged or whatever. With Jia, he was a more willing participant.

From Josh: Thanks, brother!

From Ethan: Cool!

From Karen: :)

Nothing from Sarah – I checked her Facebook account more often than she did. Nothing from Biddy, either – she’d taken the morning off work to get her hair dyed, had asked me for ideas. Something bright, I’d said, it’ll suit your personality.