He shrugged. ‘It all seems a rather more difficult decision this time, more of a big deal, as my students might say. But I do think, on balance, it’s probably for the best. What do you think?’

‘Er…’ I hesitated, increasingly aware that we were now in uncharted territory, something which I would have thought near-impossible in a close relationship spanning over two decades. ‘For the best is a bit of a weird way of putting it, if I’m honest, Giles. I’m not sure I’d want someone asking me out on the basis that they had decided it was for the best.’

‘I see,’ he said, his eyes unfocused as he mulled it over. ‘I suppose what I meant was that contacting Melissa would, on balance, make me feel better.’

I sighed. ‘Well, it’s still not Casablanca, but I do think you should do whatever makes you happy, or happier, if that’s what you’re saying.’

‘I don’t know what I’m saying.’ He yawned for a second time. ‘I’m just wondering if it is acceptable for me to ask Melissa out, if my attention is…’ He ground to a halt and, evidently feeling no need to complete the sentence, gently eased Anthony from his lap and stood up. ‘I am off to bed.’

‘Oh… OK,’ I said, as taken aback by the abruptness of his decision to end the conversation, as I had been by his initiation of it. ‘Night, then.’

‘Goodnight. Thank you for your company this evening and every evening, Edie,’ he said, disappearing into the hallway with Anthony at his heels.

I gazed after him, thinking about what he had said. Such emoting seemed wholly out of character, but then, I reminded myself, I had never previously been on-hand to witness the birth of any of Giles’s relationships. Maybe pre-date agonising and soul-searching was standard, and he had just never been drunk enough, or geographically close enough, to share it with me before.

I really hoped that was it. But as I hauled myself to my feet and headed out of the room taking my peppermint tea with me, I couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that it wasn’t.

Chapter 28

October rolled into November and Ruby’s threatened surprise visit to Bristol – the prospect of which had so traumatised me a couple of months earlier – thankfully failed to materialise. What’s more, her messages – although still packed to bursting with her successes and my misfortunes – gradually decreased in frequency, and even when I did hear from her, the negative impact of her updates was so diminished that I found myself more fascinated than distressed by them.