‘I’d been drinking in Swindon,’ he says. ‘Dark days. Things were pretty bad between me and Kate. For some reason I decided to download a dating app. I’d never done anything like that before – no need – but I’d just read an article about the online dating scene and thought I might include it in the next book. At least, that’s what I told myself.’

‘All in the name of research.’

‘Exactly. So I downloaded the app and headed for the busiest area I could think of, the Brunel Shopping Centre.’

‘Romantic.’

Jake and Kate used to prefer the Designer Outlet at the old Great Western Railway works. When Jake got bored with shopping, he’d slink away to look at the steam trains.

‘And all these people wanting no-strings sex come up,’ he says. ‘A hidden layer of promiscuity just beneath the surface. Who knew?’

‘Welcome to my world.’

Bex has never made any secret of her use of dating apps. He should have asked her how they work – it would have saved him a whole lot of trouble. His relationship too.

‘And one of them looks nice enough, says she’s up for anything, so we meet and the next thing she’s kissing me,’ he continues. ‘I can’t say it wasn’t exciting – it was the first time I’d been kissed by anyone other than Kate in twelve years.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ Bex says.

‘We went back to her bedsit, but I couldn’t go through with it. I left in a hurry. That didn’t matter, of course. The damage was done. I never saw her again, but Kate did – our meeting had been filmed.’

He will regret for the rest of his life the manner in which Kate found out. It must have been such a shock. The chances of her seeing the CCTV footage that caught the moment they kissed in the shopping centre were slim, to say the least, but it happened. He has to live with that.

‘Maybe it brought things to a head,’ Bex says.

‘I still wish it hadn’t.’

One crazy, midlife moment had ruined everything. It’s all behind him now, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped caring for Kate, worrying about her.

‘Is it roasting in here or just me?’ Bex asks.

‘It’s hot,’ Jake says, pleased that it’s not only him.

He opens his window and searches the touchscreen for the climate-control settings. ‘The heating’s on full,’ he says, turning it off.

‘I didn’t touch it,’ Bex says.

A second later, loud music starts to play through the speakers. Heavy death metal.

‘Turn that off.’ Bex glances across at Jake, who’s still fiddling with the touchscreen.

‘That wasn’t me. I promise,’ he says.

He manages to shut down the music, but it comes on again, even louder this time: growling vocals and fast, incessant drumming.