An unexpected sob escapes her mouth. His touch after the last few months feels so natural, she wonders how he could have possibly acted this way towards anyone else. ‘Why did you do this?’ She gestures around the room to the crew and cameras. It wasn’t what she planned on saying to him at all, but the script she’d prepared for herself, and for the producers, has suddenly disappeared. ‘How could you come on a TV show looking for love?’ All the frustration she’s been feeling comes bubbling to the surface.

Ty jerks like a whip has lashed his face before his whole body washes with pain. ‘You left me. I begged you to stay.’ His words are raw and anguished. ‘What did you expect me to do?’

She shakes her head; she still doesn’t know what she wants him to do. She told herself she wanted him to move on and find love with someone else, but she hadn’t realised it was going to hurt so much.

‘I even told you about this, hoping you’d change your mind.’

Penny has to lower her gaze. She can’t bear to see his vulnerability. She’s been watching him for the past two months on television, but he’s had such a wall up. Finally she sees the real him.

And he’s aching. A throbbing pain pulses through his whole body.

‘I laid everything on the table for you, Penny. I wanted nothing but a life with you.’ He looks away and for a moment Penny thinks he’s about to get up and walk away. But then he looks back, sad and defeated. ‘I thought you wanted that too …’

She realises now that he’s questioning whether she ever loved him in the first place. ‘I felt the same way. Honestly, you were everything to me.’

He’s annoyed, possibly not believing her. ‘Well, what changed?’

She has a longing to reach out and touch him, but she’s too scared he’ll bat her hand away. She’s certainly hurt him enough to warrant rejection.

‘What changed, Penny? What did I do?’

The facade she’s been trying to hide behind comes crumbling down at this. She imagines him tossing and turning at night, blaming himself for the break-up. ‘Nothing. You did nothing.’

His eyes are locked on hers, waiting …

She can’t stand it anymore. ‘I’m sick, Ty,’ she whispers. The words leave her lips and she feels the breath knocked out of her for a moment. She wasn’t going to tell him, but the relief tingles on her skin. It’s like standing at the bottom of a waterfall, letting the water cascade over her body. She wants to tilt her head back and savour it. There’s been so few of these moments … but instead she watches as he absorbs the words.

‘What do you mean?’ His mind is clearly racing.