‘Yeah,’ I bite, even though I know it’s not his fault. ‘I should’ve done it before I left,’ I berate myself. ‘Sod getting a pair of tongs through my flipping hair. Scraping dried salmon flakes off the wall would’ve been a better use of my time,’ I say, while my thumbnail picks at the vandalized wall. Having grown up in a house where I felt scared to touch anything, I wanted my children to feel the opposite. The house is theirs as well as ours. It’s the people in the home that are the most important thing. That said, I’d love the kids to have a little more respect for the walls we’ve worked hard to secure around them.

‘Baby,’ Nick says, pulling my attention away from the dried fish. ‘You looked lovely tonight and that time was well spent.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, smiling at Nick’s ability to still make me blush even after all these years.

‘Worry about it tomorrow,’ he shrugs, unknowingly deflating my heart before grabbing another slice of pizza.

I’m surprised he can’t hear the expletives that are being thrown his way in my head. It’s yet another thing for me to sort out tomorrow while he swans off to the office and gets to be an independent adult who can talk to other grown-ups and pee in peace. At home my coffee, if I have time to make one, will sit cold and untouched while I get on with the mounting ‘to do’ list that the fishy wall has now been added to. There’s always something to be getting on with and doing, and that’s around Chloe’s constant whines and needs which mean it’s difficult to do even the simplest of tasks.

If, right now, Nick were to throw down his pizza, pick up a sponge and go to work on the fishy splodge on the wall himself rather than waiting for me to do it, it would be the sexiest, most dashing thing he’s ever done for me in his life. Sod buying me a dress and taking me to a fancy restaurant Richard Gere style, cleaning up discarded fish is where the pheromones are at.

I stop my stream of resentful moaning and tell myself I’m being unfair.

He’s helped me through lots.