Javed was the young man’s name, and he’d told Michael that his frustration had led to him having a bad diet. He’d put on weight, reaching nineteen stone – then he’d managed to shed five in ten weeks by going to what they called a body-modelling centre, which was much more intensive than an everyday gym. Michael remembered the details because he’d been so impressed by Javed’s courtesy, and confidence. He’d been confident enough to take blood from Michael’s finger. Then he’d been confident enough to give him advice, despite the fact that Michael was a total stranger, and so much older.

‘And I lied,’ he said quietly.

The woman didn’t hear him. If she was aware that Michael had spoken she was pretending not to be. He was relieved, of course, for he was finding that now and then words, or short sentences, just slipped out like a soft belch. It was a kind of dribbling, and he tried to be careful, but one thought led to another and he could end up sliding sideways, or backwards. Wasn’t it during the so-called Health MOT that he had made his decision? Yes, it was – he knew it was, though he’d been trundling towards it for months.

In that chair, talking to Javed, he had realised something terribly important, and had emerged knowing that he had to act quickly, and dismantle the thing he’d been accidentally constructing for the last three and a half years. He was going to make a huge change in his own life, and Amy’s – both their present and future were to be transformed. He went straight to a café, to reflect on the consequences, but he knew the decision was made and it was simply a question of making the call, or writing the letter. He could absolutely not get married, for the whole thing was wrong – he’d been faking everything. He’d been trying and failing, so how could he imprison a woman in marriage, even if they were just seven weeks from the wedding, with Valentine’s Day just round the corner? Even if it seemed unstoppable, it could and had to be stopped.

He could not marry her, and more than anything else in the world, he wanted not to marry her. The woman frightened him, and he had spent the last however long it was pretending that wasn’t the case. Married life was too frightening, and he simply didn’t love her.