The pub’s busy, despite it being a weekday. We squeeze into a table in the corner and scan the menus.

‘I spoke to Gwen the other day,’ my mum says, casually.

I sit up and put the menu down. Mum carries on looking through the lunch options, as if we didn’t both know that she was going to have the same thing she always has when she comes here – ploughman’s lunch, no pickled onion, and half a pint of shandy.

‘What for?’ I ask.

I feel weirdly uncomfortable about that. Alice’s mum was nice enough, but the idea of her ringing is . . . weird. Is it weird? Maybe it’s perfectly normal for them to stay in touch.

‘You were going to marry her,’ Mum says, clearly reading my thoughts. ‘They would have been family. I thought it was nice.’

I make a vague noise of agreement. The last time I’d seen Alice had been anything but nice; we’d had a massive argument, where she’d made it more than clear that I was throwing my life away, ruining hers, and giving up a good career to (and I quote) piss about wiping people’s backsides for the rest of my life.

I go up to the bar and place our order. We chat about mundane things for a while, then when our food arrives, Mum launches into a long list of all the things she’s doing to keep herself busy. She’s got a pretty full-on job as a social worker for the local council, so I’m a bit worried she’s filling every second with things to avoid dealing with how she’s feeling.

‘I’m not overstretching myself, darling,’ she says, when I suggest she might need a bit more down time. She looks at me for a moment. ‘Have you just done a module on grief, or something like that?’

My mouth twists into a smile despite myself. ‘Yes, I might have – but that doesn’t mean I’m not right.’

‘Your dad’s health took up a lot of my time for the two years before he died. I had to give up pretty much everything apart from work and hospital visits, and then caring for him, and taking him to and from the hospice . . .’

‘I know.’

‘I still don’t see how all of that – that dreadful time – made you want to give up a perfectly good career.’