And then from a very great height a very large penny drops. ‘He’s not here, is he?’

Pip scratches an imaginary itch.

‘Not just now,’ I say. ‘He’s not here at all. He told me he’d moved in with you. And he hasn’t.’

Pip sighs heavily. ‘No.’

‘So where the hell is he?’

‘I’m going to make some great coffee,’ Pip says. ‘That’ll perk us both up.’ Pip has one of these all-singing, all-dancing stainless-steel coffee-makers that come with an instruction manual the size of a phone book and can do frothy milk all by itself. It gives him a great excuse to fiddle with things without looking at me.

‘Where is he?’

‘This is very difficult for me, Lyssa.’

‘It’s not that great for me either.’

‘I’m his friend.’

‘A very good one, if you’ll lie for him,’ I point out. ‘I thought you were my friend too.’

‘I am,’ Pip says as he tips coffee beans into a grinder. ‘I just don’t have to work with you.’

The grinder rattles and vibrates and I feel the noise twinge all of my fillings.

‘There’s someone else, isn’t there?’

Pip tips the ground coffee into a filter and clicks it into the machine. The rich, thick scent makes me feel nauseous.

‘She must be a work colleague. He doesn’t go anywhere else to meet anyone.’ Unless he’s having it off with one of the nurses from the fertility clinic and that would just be too ironic for words. Pip puts two stunning little stainless-steel cups in a specially designed place on the coffee-maker.

‘Speak to me, Pip.’

He flicks a switch and the machine jumps into life. Whirring and gurgling like a robotic baby. ‘Don’t do this to me.’

‘I need to know.’

‘Then speak to Jake.’

‘I would if I knew where he was!’

Pip comes and sits down next to me. He takes my hand in a rather tender manner, which I view as a bad sign. His fingers are soft and warm like freshly baked bread. Mine are cold and hard, like ice cubes. I can see words passing through his mind as he takes his time to select them to form a sentence. ‘You’re right,’ he says eventually. ‘He’s seeing someone from work. He’s at her place.’

‘Where?’ I say. ‘Tell me where.’

Pip holds my hand tighter. ‘It won’t last, Lyssa. It’s a fling. She’ll get fed up with him,’ Jake’s friend tells me. And I notice that he doesn’t say that my boyfriend will get fed up with her. ‘She’s young. She’s not into commitment. Well, I’d be very surprised if she was. I’d put money on it.’

‘So why has Jake decided to chuck everything in for her?’