If I knew for sure where he was, maybe it would settle my mind a little more. Maybe if I had some more concrete details I’d be able to put some mental pegs in the ground – have some cold, hard facts to tether myself to. I didn’t realize until Bri said he might be out of the country just how desperately it would help me to know for sure. I wasn’t sure if he was going to show up at the house any second, or pass me in the park on the way to bootcamp, or waltz through the door of the restaurant we were sat in, right now, talking with his old school friends and stopping off to shake someone’s hand, because he was the little brother of somebody or other – Alexander always bumped into somebody he knew. I couldn’t even be sure he’d stop to say hello if he did end up in the restaurant at the same time as us – that’s how little I’d obviously meant to him, which was unfathomable. I’d been willing to marry him, for crying out loud! And he didn’t care about me at all!

‘It’s like a form of psychosis or something,’ I confessed. ‘As though I imagined the whole relationship, the whole of the past ten years. It’s hard to reassess everything. Everything. How could he do this to me?’

‘Oh God, Annie,’ Bri said, reaching a hand across the table to grab mine as it played with the napkin Jo had discarded. ‘I wasn’t sure if I should say – I didn’t meant to make you cry. I’m sorry.’

I tried to roll my eyes to demonstrate how much I hated that I couldn’t control my reaction. Shaking my head to try and free myself of the emotion clutching at my throat I squawked, ‘If I’d left my bride I’d flee the country too. I’d be too ashamed to show my face.’

‘Jesus,’ muttered Kezza. ‘That little shit.’

I wondered when he’d bought his plane ticket and how long before he refused to show up that he’d known he was going to do a runner. What if he’d known when we were organizing the Spotify playlist that was going to play during the wedding breakfast, or when we went for the final menu tasting? If I’d given in and agreed to the mini Yorkshire puddings with sliced roast beef would I be sat here a married woman? Did my insistence on having the chilli crab blinis cost me my future? I didn’t even really like seafood that much! I had only wanted to make the unusual choice!