Will stared at me. ‘You know that his music is on every bloody playlist I have. And you’ve never thought to mention you’re actually mates with him?’

‘It’s a bit awkward.’ I walked past him to the drawer for the bottle-opener. ‘We had a bit of a thing. It was years back.’

‘You. And Johnnie Mac.’

‘Yes. Well, kind of.’ I took the beer out his hand, opened it and handed it back. ‘It wasn’t anything serious.’

‘Jesus. That song. “Lady.” It’s about you, isn’t it?’

‘I . . . Well . . . Not necessarily.’

‘The three freckles were a pathway to heaven. A heaven that’d torment me to hell.’ He quoted one of the lines of the song. ‘You really think there are others out there with three freckles underneath their hip bone leading down to—’

I cut him off. ‘He’s a rockstar. He’s probably slept with hundreds of women. Odds are, when talking about such vast numbers, there could be one or two, maybe even three with freckles round there.’

‘Who are you kidding? God, to think I used to chuckle when I heard that song and thought about my own little pathway to heaven. And now I find out it’s a fucking well-trodden road as this guy has slept with my wife.’

‘Look, it’s not that big a deal.’

‘I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t mention it. I mean, it’s pretty amazing. Even in an anecdotal kind of way. How was it that at no point when we were in our getting-to-know-you stage, that lying in bed discussing exes, you felt any desire to say, “‘Hey, funny story – I screwed around with a rockstar and it messed him up so much he wrote a song about it?’”

‘I just found it a bit embarrassing. You know I don’t care about celebrities and all that showbiz stuff.’

‘How did you even meet?’

‘It was through work. He was assisting us on an intelligence matter. Look, you know I can’t say more. National security.’

‘How. Convenient.’

‘Come on, Will, it’s not that big a deal.’

‘And what the hell were you doing with him a few days ago? Being driven back from a bloody lunchtime quickie?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. We were at the same work meeting. You don’t have anything to be jealous of.’

‘Don’t try and make me out to be some crazy, jealous husband. Look at Jake – I’ve never said a word about whatever history there clearly is between you two. I like the guy, I even let you make him godfather to our child. It’s a little different when it’s some rockstar who, up until today, I thought the closest we both got to was drunk dancing to his music. What the hell else don’t I know about you?’