Not entirely sure what I was wearing, I glanced down: it was my Summerisle Tourism Board shirt, subtle enough to mean nothing if you didn’t know what it was referencing. ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘You’ve seen The Wicker Man?’

‘Yeah. One of my favourites. The original, obviously.’

‘Obviously.’ I decided to test his limits. ‘Are you just being nice now because I like the same niche shit as you?’

He smiled faintly. ‘I’m sorry for being a … grump. This is the second group I’ve been to, and I’m just … I’m kinda burnt out, man. You know? I was pissed off that I even had to be here again.’

‘Yikes. Your second?’

He nodded solemnly. ‘My mom is convinced – I don’t know. That if I spend the rest of my life doing support groups, maybe I’ll get better. Picture, if you will, some eighty-year-old man in a teen bereavement group. “Yes, I’m spiritually here,” ’ he said in a croaky voice.

I laughed. Fine. Leo had grown on me, and I wanted to talk to him more, but Mom was in the lobby, and I didn’t want her to think I’d made any friends. I gave him a half-smile – ‘See you in two weeks, I guess.’ Then I turned on my heel and left.

I looked him up afterwards.

It might seem a bit excessive. Whatever. Not like I had anything better to do.

After we found out I’d been accepted into the group, Mom had forwarded me the email from Gerry, which had been sent to all the other parents too – and luckily, Gerry’s counselling training seemed to have excluded how to bcc an email, which meant I had a list of neat and tidy parent email addresses, complete with last names. One of those last names had to belong to Leo. Just a quick search on Facebook, and bam. I’d find him.

There was a Leo Townsend, but he lived in California, and a few Leo Smiths. But Leo’s last name was Anderson, and I almost missed him, because his first name wasn’t actually Leo.

I’d be pissed off all the time too if my fucking name was Galileo.

Flipping through his profile pictures, I found it hard to believe that this was the same grumpy bastard I’d met. But the most recent picture was from two years ago, anyway. It showed him smiling with another guy, and they were pressed against each other in a way that suggested it wasn’t platonic. I pieced it together – ha! Another gay! In the wild! His listed relationship status confirmed this.

But the picture after that was him and a different guy, who looked a lot like him, weirdly.

And the commenters were saying things like I’m so sorry and he loved you so much and it isn’t your fault.