‘What problems, Edi?’ he’d snapped, and I’d presented them in a level and orderly fashion. I may as well have whipped out a PowerPoint presentation; at least then I would have had somewhere to look other than at Rowan who, by that time, was looking at me like I was talking out of my arse. He was so surprised at my viewpoint of it all – how he’d taken to the break so easily; how his jealousy only flared when I took to the break, too – that my confidence soon started to wobble, right around the time Rowan got confident enough to start talking. In the hours after he’d gone, taking with him half a box of stuff that he’d gathered in a temper, I thought back over what I’d said and wondered what was true, and what was only true to me.

‘Don’t let him do that,’ Cora butted in when I took a pause.

‘Do what?’

Lily answered, ‘Let him convince you that issues aren’t issues.’

‘If they’re issues to one of you then they’re issues to both.’ Betty threw three salted pretzels into her mouth and spoke around bites. ‘Men do that sometimes. What’s it called?’ She clicked her fingers, sipped her drink. ‘Whatever it’s called. They make you think that problems aren’t problems because they don’t see them as problems.’

‘Women do it as well,’ Lily jumped in and Cora shot her a sharp look. ‘I’m just saying.’

‘Well, save it.’ Betty winked at me. ‘One world crisis at a time.’

‘Is gaslighting a world problem?’ Faith looked up from her phone to ask, and Betty clicked her fingers again.

‘Gaslighting. That’s the fucker.’

‘Eloquent as ever.’ I raised my eyebrow at Betty and she shrugged. ‘Gaslighting is a bold accusation and, frankly, I pay a counsellor for that level of introspection. But whatever we’re calling it, whatever he was trying to do, it didn’t work, did it?’ There was a murmur of agreement around the circle. ‘He made me think things weren’t as bad as they seemed – that’s all I mean. But I’m grown up enough to know that the person who doesn’t want things to end can often dish out a menu of reasons why they shouldn’t,’ I said this last part directly to Betty, lest she jump in with a PowerPoint presentation of her own.

There was a pregnant pause until Molly jumped in to take the baton. ‘Edi, do you feel like you did the right thing?’

I rubbed at my forehead. ‘When he left, even through all the worries and the doubts and … I don’t know, even through the confusion of it all. I think, more than anything, I just felt …’ I petered out, but Molly finished the sentence for me.

‘Relieved.’