Gabi carried on speaking, head down, directing her words towards the table. ‘I was so set on what I thought he was going to say, that nothing he said made sense to me. So I had this big, stupid grin on my face… And then, one by one, the words made sense. It was like he poured a bucket of ice water all over me.’

Anna left the milk heating on the hob and sat down in the chair opposite Gabi. ‘And what exactly did he say?’

Gabi met her gaze. ‘He likes me, and that he thinks I’m great fun, but…’

‘But?’

Gabi’s bottom lip quivered. ‘But apparently, I’m not enough fun on my own…’

‘So he doesn’t want to break up?’ Anna asked, just to make sure she was understanding this right.

‘No.’

‘But he wants to see other people as well as you?’

Gabi nodded, looking even more broken.

At that point the milk boiled, foaming over the edge of the saucepan and hitting the stainless-steel hob with a hiss. Anna jumped up, grabbed the pan, and took it off the heat. Then she looked at the mess. ‘Stuff it,’ she said, leaving the saucepan on the counter and heading in the direction of the living room. ‘Forget hot chocolate. There’s only one drink for situations like this.’

She returned with two glasses of Lagavulin and set one down in front of Gabi.

‘Whisky?’ Gabi said, frowning.

‘You’ll thank me later,’ Anna replied and dropped back into her chair. She and Gabi looked each other in the eye, raised their glasses, swallowed, then grimaced in unison.

Gabi coughed, then said something in Portuguese that her mother probably wouldn’t have approved of. She closed her eyes and placed a hand at the base of her throat, seemingly concentrating on something. When she opened her eyes again, she handed Anna her glass. ‘Another.’

Anna went to fetch the bottle and placed it on the table between them. ‘So… What did you say to him?’

Gabi knocked back a second whisky and replaced her glass on the table with a satisfying thud. ‘I told him he could see as many girls as he wanted, but that I was not going to be one of them.’

‘Good for you! And then what did you do? Did anyone need stitches?’

Gabi shook her head, and then a tiny smile curled her lips, almost in spite of herself. ‘When I walked out the restaurant, he was wearing the tiramisu.’

Anna laughed. She raised her glass and toasted Gabi’s moxie.

Gabi’s smile faded. She stared at her empty glass for a few seconds and then she slumped on the table again, her long hair spilling over her arms, and started to cry. Anna got up, went around the table and crouched down beside her, hugging her and rubbing her back. ‘Do you want to stay here tonight?’

The rustling of the curls on the tabletop told Anna that Gabi was nodding. She started to cry even harder.