He did nothing to help me along and I began to wonder if his behaviour was a little reminiscent of the clingy conduct which had preceded my last trip to Wynbridge. Perhaps the old Jonathan wasn’t completely exiled after all.

‘And you’re sure you’re going to be all right travelling alone?’ he asked. ‘It’s been a while.’

‘Of course, I’ll be all right,’ I laughed. ‘What are you talking about? It’s only a train and a taxi journey.’

‘Sorry,’ he shrugged, ‘I know I’m making a fuss but I worry about you and it’s quite a trek. You should have agreed to let me drive you then you wouldn’t have to struggle with all these bags.’

I felt a little ashamed then, to have mistaken his current concern and kind consideration for his former suffocating clinginess. His offer to drive me to Wynbridge couldn’t have been easily made given his memories of the place.

‘I’ll be fine on the train,’ I told him, ‘but thank you for offering to drive.’

‘All right,’ he shrugged. ‘I’ll walk you down.’

‘No,’ I smiled, planting a swift kiss on his cheek. ‘It’s all right. I can manage.’

He stepped closer and kissed me softly on the lips. I pulled away before it really was too late.

‘I have to go,’ I whispered.

I left quickly, thinking how strange it felt to be the one going. Jonathan popped in and out of the flat regularly, but the only place I ever ventured off to on my own was to work. Or should I say, had been to work? The journey to Wynbridge was, as he had pointed out, the first trip I’d taken on my own in what felt like a very long time. It was hardly a global adventure, and I didn’t for one second think he’d intended to, but his concern had made me feel a bit jittery about it.

*

Unfortunately, my sudden attack of nerves were completely justified because the journey was far from straightforward. The taxi had barely set off when Jonathan rang to say I’d left the paper copy of my ticket behind. It didn’t really matter because I had it on the app on my phone, but then I started worrying something would go wrong with that. The traffic through the city was crawling and when I did eventually arrive at the station, I pushed through the crowds to discover the timetable was completely off-kilter thanks to a series of signal failures.