Ellen looked at her. ‘No, it could only have happened to me.’ She ran her hands through her hair, massaging her temples. A mirthless laugh. ‘My parents always warned me that you never knew who you might be talking to online.’

To everyone’s surprise – particularly his own – Jack started laughing. Quietly at first, but then louder and louder, until he couldn’t stop.

Ellen, Ben and Alexa all regarded him with no little concern.

‘Sorry,’ Jack said, after twenty seconds or so. He sounded very contrite.

‘Don’t you dare bloody tweet this, Jack,’ Ellen said, sharply. She rolled her eyes. ‘God, I’m so embarrassed. But wait –’ Unfortunately, she needed to submit herself to the humiliation of a few more details. ‘Did he at least say why he ghosted me? How on earth did I wrong my fourteen-year-old virtual boyfriend?’

Ben gave her a solemn smile. ‘I think he really started to like you. That’s why he sent the letter and everything. He was besotted, I reckon.’

Ellen winced. Alexa tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. She definitely knew the whole story.

Ben continued. ‘But then, well, I think he freaked out a bit, basically. Because you had both started talking about meeting up and he realized it couldn’t go on much longer. If you met him, you would know he’d been lying all along. And that he was actually fourteen years old.’ Ben smiled sympathetically. ‘Also, I think he thought that Ava had twigged, or something. My sister. That’s what he said.’ Ben gave a rueful smile. ‘He couldn’t believe I’d met you so many years later, you know. Got very excited about the odds of it all.’ He added, ‘Oli’s a mathematician.’

‘You said,’ Ellen replied, huffily.

‘Oh, Ellen.’ Alexa made an amused grimace.

Ellen moaned. ‘God. I know I was a sad virgin in 2009, but this was next level.’

Ben laughed, at least. ‘Sorry. If it’s any consolation, Ol does feel really, really bad about it. Once he’d got over the extraordinary coincidence of it all, he did feel really awful to know how much it had upset you.’ Ben looked like he was about to try and reach out and take Ellen’s hand, but thought better of it. ‘He asked me to tell you that he was sorry, but he was fourteen and it all got out of hand and he didn’t really know what he was doing.’

‘That made two of us, then,’ Ellen said, dully. She found that she could no longer look at Ben. ‘I’m glad that your fantasist brother feels bad about the humiliation he caused me, though.’

‘Can I get you another drink?’ Alexa tried.

Ellen could tell she was still fighting back amusement. ‘Yes.’

Alexa shuffled out of the booth and padded towards the bar.