‘What shall we do now?’ she asked.

Tommy shrugged and offered nothing further. Tears stung Paula’s eyes. She remembered the days when there was no question of how they would spend any precious free time. In bed, or driving out to a forest and making love on the bonnet of his car under a starry sky.

At that moment, Dermot and another pal, Angus, wandered past. Tommy grinned and there was much back-slapping and clasping of hands. Paula smiled weakly, hovering on the fringes of the group.

‘Hey, we’re going to try out the casino. Wanna come?’ Angus said.

Paula brightened. The casino was one place they hadn’t spent any time, and though they didn’t have money to burn, they could certainly afford to enjoy an hour or so of indulgence.

Tommy said, ‘Yes! Good plan, buddy.’ He turned to Paula, put a hand on her arm. ‘You don’t mind, do you, love?’

‘No, sounds great,’ she said.

‘Cool.’ He dipped his head, landed an awkward kiss on her cheek. ‘I’ll see you later.’

And with that, he was gone.

Paula watched their departing figures with disbelief. From behind her came a snort of laughter, and she turned to see the woman on the information desk raise her hand to cover her mouth. All at once she recognised her as the stylist who had wrecked her hair in the ship’s salon, and her rudeness suddenly made sense. The girl had been demoted. Banished from the salon to work on the information desk.

Paula’s face reddened. She ducked her head and walked quickly away.

In her suite, she closed the door behind her. Leaning against it, exhaustion overcame her. More than anything she wanted to call Julie, and she reached for her bag, belatedly remembering that her phone was gone. She thought of Tommy, of asking if she could use his phone, and remembered he was with his pals in the casino, enjoying the lunchtime fun that she wasn’t invited to.

How had this happened? she wondered as she pulled off her coat and slung it on the bed. How had a once-in-a-lifetime cruise turned into something so awful, and on top of that, how had it managed to highlight every single rotten piece of her marriage?

Tears came, in earnest this time, and she let them flow as she stumbled into the bathroom and pulled off some toilet roll to wipe her eyes. When her crying jag was done, she rinsed her face with cold water and towelled it vigorously. Looking in the mirror, she started, not recognising the woman who glared back at her with red-rimmed eyes and a pale, drawn face. She opened the cabinet, pulled out her make-up bag and rummaged for the powder that Anna had given her on that first day.