“I didn’t realize you were still sleeping with him.” She looked completely crushed. “Harry said you weren’t.”

My eyes rolled nearly to the back of my head. “Of course we were. Weren’t you? With Tom?”

She was quiet, then she said, “It hadn’t happened with Tom in a long time. I think the fact we were trying to have a baby didn’t help. He saw it as a sign of failure in the end. And I learned that if I wanted him, he’d turn me down. Every single time.” She shook her head as if she wanted to get rid of that thought. “And then one day, he said something. He was so cruel.”

“What did he say?”

She shook her head, her eyes glossy with tears. “Sorry, I can’t stand to think about it.”

“Get it out into the open,” I said. “Don’t let it fester. He can’t hurt you now.”

She took a deep breath. “We were having a row at Christmas, the year before last. He always found it stressful. And afterward, I wanted to make up with him. I didn’t want a horrible atmosphere, especially not at Christmas. So I approached him, you know . . .” She faltered. “In bed. And he flinched. Actually flinched. It was automatic, he didn’t think about it, he just looked disgusted. He told me that I simply didn’t do it for him anymore. That I had, when I was younger. And that it wasn’t my looks, so much, though it was that, obviously. It was my personality. He said he’d lost all respect for me, that if he’d known this is how I’d turn out, he wouldn’t have married me. Wouldn’t have dated me. Wouldn’t have even spoken to me on the night we met.”

“Funnily enough,” I said, “that’s exactly how I felt about him.”

She stared at me, openmouthed, and then she started to laugh but within a minute she was in tears. She picked up her bag and went over to the restroom. When she returned, her face was red and her makeup had been washed away. I thought she wouldn’t say anything more but she drank her coffee, then carried on.

“I went on the pill after that. I knew I didn’t want to have a baby with him. I didn’t tell him. I was so unhappy, but I just couldn’t pluck up the courage to leave. I remember thinking I was disappearing. That one day I’d look in the mirror and all I’d see was a ghost.” She looked up at me and I swear in that moment she had forgotten I was Harry’s wife. “And when I got involved with Harry, well, he brought me back to life.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Well, that’s great,” I said, “but it was at my expense.”