Are you just going down to the pool because she’s going? So you can have a few minutes together? Why was she ignoring you? Why can’t she even meet your eye?

Perhaps the answer was obvious.

She can’t meet your eye because she doesn’t want to give herself away. It’s that simple. Is it?

Is it Jennifer, then?

I was reminded, more forcefully than ever before, that Jennifer and Sean had been a couple for a few months when we were students.

And after their split he had got together with me.

There had been no crossover. At least, that was the story we’d always maintained. It was best to keep the story simple, best for all concerned.

It came back to me then: the worst thing that Sean had ever said to me, the most hurtful words he had ever uttered – buried in my memory for so long I thought I had forgotten. The game of Truth or Dare we had played after a few months together, Sean almost too drunk to stand. Best sex I ever had? That would have to be Jennifer, ha ha, first love and all that . . .

A furious row had followed, as I tearfully explained to him that you weren’t necessarily supposed to tell the truth in Truth or Dare, especially if it was as hurtful and horrible as what he had said. Especially if it was about his tall, athletic, American ex-girlfriend who was also one of my best friends. Him blinking drunkenly up at me, saying sorry sorry sorry, over and over again, pleading, swaying on his feet, telling me it was just a joke, just a stupid joke and he didn’t mean it.

We had split up for a fortnight before I relented to his begging and took him back. It had never been mentioned since and it was so long ago that I hoped it would never surface again. I had never told Jennifer, or the other two.

How about it, Jennifer? Is it you and Sean? Is it a second go-around for the two of you? Best sex he ever had, after all. Rekindling a first love, something like that? Like those people who hook up with their teenage boyfriends on Facebook and end up leaving their husbands?

Is it long-overdue revenge for stealing your boyfriend all those years ago?

No. That was mad.

Or was it?

Chapter 7

7

I needed to clear my head.

I needed a bit of time and space for myself. What I needed most of all was to get out, to get away, to be alone for a while – but that was the one thing I couldn’t have this week.