‘We are,’ Jason assured her. ‘Very much so. It’s just…’

‘Complex?’ Jessie supplied, diplomatically avoiding the ‘it’s complicated’ cliché.

‘Extremely,’ he said, and waited.

‘Care to share?’ Jessie asked him, after a beat. ‘You don’t have to, if you’d rather not, but I’m a good listener if you need an ear.’

And now Jason really had no idea where to start. For Karla’s sake, he didn’t want any of what he’d learned about his relationship with her to get out. There was no reason it should, but even so. ‘I’m… not who my wife thinks I am,’ he said, which sounded evasive – ominous, even – but he didn’t know how else to explain it.

‘Are any of us ever?’ Jessie replied, sounding unfazed.

Jason shook his head. ‘I guess not, no.’

‘Do you still care for her?’ Jessie asked intuitively.

‘Very much,’ Jason answered straight off.

Jessie hesitated. ‘As in, you’re still in love with her?’

‘Honestly…’ Sighing deeply, Jason kneaded his temple. ‘I don’t know. I realise that sounds ridiculous, but… The thing is, I found out something about her that means I can’t love her, not in the way she needs me to.’

‘Oh hell.’ Jessie’s voice was sympathetic. ‘She cheated on you, I take it?’

‘No. No, she didn’t,’ Jason said quickly, his stomach tightening into a fist. She hadn’t before now, and he tried to hold on to that certainty – the one thing in this mess he thought he could hold on to.

‘It must have been something bad though,’ Jessie suggested tentatively. ‘For it to have caused the two of you to split up, I mean. She’s not a mass murderer, is she?’

‘Definitely not that,’ Jason assured her. Karla couldn’t hurt a fly. She’d once cried when she found a dead mouse in the garage. She was terrified of mice, but she’d cried anyway, which had perplexed him. ‘It’s… something to do with her history.’

‘I see,’ Jessie said, after a thoughtful second. ‘But you don’t want to say what?’

Jason drew in a breath and then exhaled slowly. ‘That wouldn’t be fair on her.’

It all sounded nuts, he realised. It was nuts. If Jessie had any sense, she would end the call and cut her losses. Not that she would have lost much.

‘Jessie, please accept my apologies,’ he went on, after pausing to try and collect his thoughts. ‘I didn’t mean to string you along. I like you. A lot, as it happens. You’re beautiful, smart, witty.’

‘Keep going.’ Jessie laughed uncertainly.

‘My personal life is a mess, Jessie. I would very much like to offer you what you might be looking for, but I don’t want to end up hurting you. If you’d rather not have anything to do with me, then… Well, I understand.’