Normally I would have called Sarah to chat to her but those days were gone. Then I thought of Oliver. He was a good friend. I would talk to him, tell him everything, and ask for his advice. I sent him a message:

Hi, are you free tonight? x

He replied immediately. Sorry, I’m off to Ibiza for ten days this afternoon. I’ll be in touch when I get back x

My heart sank. I couldn’t talk to Sarah; I couldn’t forgive her for lying to me. I had to tackle Tom, but needed someone behind me, someone to back me up.

Oliver sent another message: I’m free for an hour now, if you like? Where are you?

I answered: I’m walking down by the river, near the lighthouse. I felt so weak right then. Can you come?

Wait there, he wrote. I won’t be long.

Minutes later his car pulled up. He jumped out. “Oh, Ruby, you look awful. What’s the matter?”

He sat next to me on the bench and hugged me. It felt so comfortable and warm, so welcoming, and I burst into tears.

He touched my arm. “What is it?”

“I don’t know where to start,” I said.

“Start at the beginning. What’s happened?”

I took a deep breath. “You remember I told you I thought I’d met someone?”

“Harry?”

I stared at him. “Did I tell you his name?”

“You mentioned it, but I was out in Liverpool last night and bumped into Sarah and her husband.”

“I’d forgotten you knew her.”

“They were at Tom’s birthday party last year, remember? She seemed angry with you. She told me you’d left home to be with your boss, but he’d dumped you.”

“He didn’t dump me!”

“He didn’t turn up and you never heard from him again. That sounds like you were dumped.”

“Well,” I said, my face smarting. “I saw him by chance yesterday and do you know what he said?”

Oliver frowned. “Oh God, you’re not going back to him, are you?”

“No. No, of course not. His wife’s having a baby. That’s why he stayed with her.”

“And they say romance is dead.” He shook his head. “You can do better than that, Ruby.”

I didn’t think I could, that was the trouble.

“He told me that he’d e-mailed me to tell me he couldn’t leave his wife,” I said. “I didn’t get the message. Tom had my iPad that day. I think he read Harry’s e-mail and deleted it before I could see it.”

“So Tom knew that you were being dumped?” He saw my face. “Sorry, I mean he knew that the guy you were seeing wasn’t going to leave home that night and yet he let you leave home without knowing that?”