‘Yeah, not really. I blocked her number like a fucking douche. At first, I thought she was –’

Dingding. Sarah’s phone, not mine. She let go, a pained expression, scanned the room. I pointed at the radiator. She took the dishtowel from me, kissed me, a peck. ‘Oh, that’s Jack,’ she said, her eyes still on the phone. ‘He’s nearby and says he wants to go for a quick walk.’

‘What, right now?’ I said, laughing.

‘He’ll be here in ten minutes.’

‘Ten minutes?’ I said, laughing. Why was I laughing so much?

Dingding.

She looked at her phone again, seemed flustered. ‘He’s saying we can maybe just walk round the block slowly to have a chat.’

‘Does he have an umbrella?’

‘I don’t know. I can take ours though. God. Are you OK with this?’

Heartbeat … fucking heartbeat. ‘Yeah, sure, don’t mind me.’

She ducked into the bathroom, closed the door, and I made it my priority to focus on washing the remaining dishes properly. No grease – you had to be careful of that, hold the plates and cups up to the light. God, it was amazing, you sometimes had to wash and rinse them twice, three times.

I’d done the lion’s share by the time she came out of the bathroom.

‘You look nice,’ I said. And she did – I’d been telling her that for fifteen years.

Dingding.

‘Oh, that’s him,’ she said. ‘I won’t be long.’ She leant in, a peck. ‘I’m really sorry about you and Biddy. I’ll maybe call her, just to check in, if you don’t mind.’

‘Yeah sure,’ I said. ‘Stay safe.’

As soon as she was out the front door I crept into the backyard, tiptoed barefoot through puddles, round the side of the house, and waited, crouching, getting drenched.

She was on the street, rain rattling on her umbrella. Her phone rang. ‘Oh, hello.’ Her happy voice.

Water cascaded from the gutter onto me. Footsteps coming to a halt, Jack the Dom, Jack the Dom, murmurs I couldn’t make out, and then Sarah and … fuck, they were walking away. I caught Jack’s shadowy form, didn’t get a proper look.

I crawled on all fours along the wet path, opened the garden gate, poked my head out to the street. Fuck it – they were gone.

I stood in the kitchen pulling leaves and twigs from my feet, checked on the kids – yes, sleeping.

My phone. Find my Friends.

Sarah was – where was she? Come on, come on. She was in the street that ran parallel to ours. It had decent lighting but few people, would be even quieter in the rain. I refreshed the feed, followed them. They were doing the same circuit I’d done with Biddy the night we first kissed, her mouth on mine, feather soft.