‘Mario’ – she sat forward and tried to stay calm – ‘is this you being funny?’ Despite the sharp suggestion of pain in her throat and the tightening of her chest, she hoped it was somehow all a joke, hoped she could in the next few minutes explode with relief and then laughter, which would be uncomfortable, but preferable, because if he was being serious . . . well, that was . . . that was unthinkable.

He stood and walked out to the hallway, where she heard him rummage in his lunch box, dumped on the floor by the front door. He came back into the kitchen with an envelope in his hand. He held it up and she read the word ‘Bessie’ in handwriting that she had always thought was way too elegant, wasted, in fact, on a man of his trade.

‘You found it.’

He nodded and again took up his seat. ‘It was in my lunchbox. You see, I did go into Clintons and I searched high and low for over half an hour, maybe more. But I found it hard to pick one. I read all the cards with roses on the front, but they weren’t quite what I was looking for – they were a bit over the top and mushy. And so I went to two more shops and, about an hour or so later, I found this.’ Sticking his finger under the flap of the envelope, he slit through the gum and pulled out the card, denying her the chance to open it herself, as if she didn’t deserve it – her birthday card, which was beautiful. It featured a Monet-like garden scene, full of wisteria and lilac-shaded blooms, weeping into an inky-toned lake where a beautiful mallard swam serenely with a trail of ducklings following in her wake. It made her weep. It was as far from cartoon and comical as was possible, a stunning card worthy of framing. She had got it wrong – so wrong.

‘You don’t remember, do you?’ He held the card and banged the corner against the tabletop as he spoke. She watched the corner flatten and a crease appear. It bothered her, this destruction, this denting of such a beautiful image before she had had the chance to hold it in her palms and look inside.

‘Don’t remember what?’ She shook her head.