‘Crikey,’ said Beamish, draining his glass of Coke.

‘What?’

‘Nothing,’ he shrugged. ‘Fancy another?’

I watched him chatting to some of the other customers while he waited to get served. He was the perfect fit for the place, and I didn’t just mean the pub. Beamish was the ideal fit for Wynbridge. I hoped I would look even half as at home in Abu Dhabi after I’d had time to settle in.

‘I hope you don’t mind me asking about this again,’ Beamish said when he came back, ‘but have you given any more thought to getting back in touch with your parents?’

He was certainly full of questions and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent so long talking about myself.

‘I have,’ I told him, wholeheartedly wishing that was the one question he hadn’t asked, ‘and I’m not going to.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’m not going to go into it all,’ I went on, ‘but like I told you before, it’s a whole lot more complicated than you know and I just don’t think contacting them now would be the right thing to do. I know you said you have regrets, but . . .’

‘But my situation was complicated too,’ he cut in. ‘And it’s the fact that I didn’t work through those complications when I had the chance that make my regrets even harder to live with.’

‘Complicated in what way?’

Beamish bit his lip.

‘Sorry,’ I said, ‘you don’t have to answer that.’

It was hardly fair that I should expect him to explain his situation to me when I had just told him I wasn’t prepared to go into the details of mine.

‘My father was a monster,’ he shocked me by saying. ‘He was a manipulative bully who made my mother’s life an absolute misery.’

‘Oh god, Beamish . . .’

‘He was a control freak,’ he said angrily, ‘everything had to be done his way or not at all.’

I didn’t know what to say. I was completely taken aback by his words and bitter tone. He didn’t sound anything like the good old Beamish I had gotten to know at all.

‘I begged Mum to leave him for years,’ he carried on, distractedly running a hand through his hair, ‘but she wouldn’t. She said she knew he wasn’t the easiest man to live with, but she loved him and that compromise was all part of being married.’ He shook his head. ‘But there was no compromise from him. Everything was always about him getting his own way.’

‘Had he always been like that?’ I asked, unsure I wanted to hear his answer.

Beamish was quiet for a moment.