She goes to stand beside him, wondering how she will react if she sees Cosmo again, as she almost certainly will in such a small town. At least next time she will be ready for the encounter. She leans forward, trying to concentrate on the properties Max is showing her, but she is still thinking about Cosmo. And remembering Joe: how they’d danced at nightclubs and parties, shared intimate suppers in a small Italian restaurant where Joe was treated like a prince, and made exciting, passionate love in his friend’s flat. How quickly she fell in love, so ready to believe that this was going to be the biggest thing in her life. How devastated she was when he went back to Italy.

‘Are you OK?’

Max is staring up at her, frowning a little with concern.

‘Yes,’ she answers, pulling herself together. ‘Yes, of course I am.’ She points randomly at the screen. ‘That one looks nice. Are there any more details?’

CHAPTER TWO

Cosmo is sitting on a bench on the waterfront, watching the boats and eating a crab sandwich he’s bought from The Salcombe Yawl. Reggie sits attentively beside him, one eye covetously on the sandwich, but Cosmo is thinking about the girl he saw in the Coffee Shop: her paint-stained dungarees worn over a T-shirt, the way her hair was twisted up. She looked workmanlike, confident, happy. He knows that he shouldn’t want to see her again but he does. It’s probably because she’s the antithesis of Becks, whose short black hair is always cut into neat sharp angles, whose business suits are smart, her high heels clack along busily and her iPhone is always clamped to her hand. She is ambitious, driven, successful. He admires that, finds it sexy. At the same time it’s leaving less and less time for fun, for chilling, for seeing their friends. It’s why he’s kept his little pad in Hackney – so that he can take time out from the rarefied atmosphere that surrounds Becks; from her expectations of him. It’s why he loves it here: the slower pace, the boats bobbing at anchor, the rise and ebb of the tides.

As he turns to share with Reggie the last piece of crust he sees the girl again. She is swinging along towards him and even as he looks at her, his fingers still outstretched to Reggie, she sees him and begins to laugh.

‘I saw that,’ she says. ‘Very bad habit.’

He laughs too, delighted by this friendliness. He drags his handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his fingers.

‘I couldn’t resist, he looked so pathetic,’ he tells her. ‘Don’t tell anyone.’

‘I shan’t have to,’ she answers. ‘He’ll be begging now every chance he has. Is he yours?’

Cosmo shakes his head, making a face, guying guilt.

‘Thought I’d seen him around before,’ she says. ‘You’re in big trouble.’