Melissa hadn’t got anywhere in mind, really. She’d have been happy just to go to the pub and have a few drinks, but Ray wasn’t keen on that kind of thing. He said he didn’t like mixing with the locals because he always felt like an outsider, not having grown up in the town like they all had.

‘And I can’t bear to think that you might have had liaisons with any of them,’ he always said. He’d emphasised the word ‘liaisons’, making it sound quite mysterious, but Melissa knew that he just meant sex.

Melissa said nothing. He was right. There were very few men of her age in the pub that Melissa hadn’t slept with, or at least snogged at some point in her youth. That was just the way it was in a small town. Everyone had history. And you forgot about it after a while because it had been a lifetime ago, but Ray had never seemed to get the hang of it and eyed any man they met with suspicion.

So, when they went out, they generally went to eat rather than to the pub.

‘There’s that new bistro by the bingo hall,’ Melissa said. ‘I bet that’s open on a Monday. I’ll find out, book us a table.’

Then Ray had taken his trusty blue notebook out of his back pocket and flicked open to the relevant page. Melissa hated that book. As far as she was concerned it brought nothing but heartache and irritation.

‘That would be perf—’ he said. And then, ‘Oh, hang on.’ He frowned as he ran a finger down the page. ‘The thirteenth. I’m in Glasgow that week. I’ll have to go on the Saturday to get there and set up before the client comes in late Sunday night. I’m so sorry, babe.’

‘But it’s my forty-fifth,’ protested Melissa.

It wasn’t a particularly significant birthday, but it had a five on the end so it felt a little bit momentous.

‘I know, princess, but I can’t change it. Let’s have an extra-special celebration the week before. Or after. You take your pick. And I’ll buy you the biggest bottle of champagne in the place. You can have bubbles like you’ve never had them before. Even your bubbles will have bubbles!’

He gave her that smile he always gave her, the one that could still make her insides turn to jelly, but this time it didn’t work.

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Ray,’ she protested. ‘Do you have to go? It’s my bloody birthday. I don’t ask much, do I? I put up with your stupid job. I’ve virtually brought our Leah up on my own . . .’

Ray looked hurt at this and opened his mouth to object, but Melissa pressed on, her anger building with each accusation.