Caroline grinned impishly. Shutting the kitchen door, she murmured, ‘I’ve had a bloke and all. Bet you wouldn’t have thought that, eh? Met him down the Bingo. Picking up his mum he was, and offered us a lift home. Next thing I knew he was round here, only as a friend, like. Anyway, to cut a long story short, me and him had a bottle of wine one night, watched Basic Instinct on the old video, and Bob’s your uncle.’ She looked half-excited and half-ashamed.

‘You didn’t! How did it feel?’

Caroline shrugged her slim shoulders as if thinking deeply. ‘Funny at first, strange. You know, you get used to one bloke, don’t you? Then it felt good, really good, because there was no love in it. Nothing but the need of what I was doing, and it sort of got me going somehow. After all this time without the nudger I was ready for something to happen, I suppose. I just never thought about it until the opportunity presented itself. And did it present itself!’

Donna laughed with her and they both felt Caroline’s embarrassment and also her need to tell someone what she had done.

‘It’s funny you know, Donna. We stay faithful, like, but at the end of the day all I had done is scratch an itch. That’s all. After being used to a regular sexlife I felt the loss of it deeply. Also I think contact with another person helps you. I like being in bed on me own as I said before, but it’s nice to know I can have it warmed up by a tasty bloke with a nice body and a good sense of humour, if I want him. That’s the real bonus. It’s all up to me. He rings me sometimes and I say, no thanks, not tonight, and I put the phone down and forget about him. Another time I think to meself, “Yes please, Boysie, get your arse round here!” I’m in charge, see? It’s all up to me and no one else.’

Donna listened to the younger woman in delight. She was envying her for finding out what life was really all about at such a young age, an age when she could enjoy the discovery and know she still had years to enjoy it.

‘I know what you’re saying, Caroline. After all those years of living for Wayne and around Wayne, now you’re doing things just for you. For no one but yourself. I’m beginning to feel like that too.’

Caroline grasped Donna’s hand across the rickety kitchen table and said earnestly, ‘I found out that my Wayne was knocking off some bird in Plaistow. It really threw me. Was your old man ever unfaithful to you?’