‘Our age?’

‘Older,’ she said quickly. ‘A bit. But he was nothing like—’ She would not say James Caine’s name in my house and I was grateful. ‘Your one,’ she said. ‘My one was kind. Kindness is very underrated in a man. Sometimes that’s all you need. And he knew me. And we talked, because we knew each other well enough to talk. And one night he said – ‘You know I’m on your side,’ and I said, ‘I know you are.’ And that was it – we were off.’

‘How long did it go on for?’

‘Too long.’ She glanced toward the living room. ‘We should go in to join the boys.’

‘How did it end?’

‘Look – it just fizzled out, OK? No big dramas. The way it fizzles out when you both understand that nobody is going to leave their family.’

‘Married?’

‘They’re all married, Tara.’

‘And Spike never knew?’

‘Spike would have killed him if he knew.’

Such an easy thing to say, I thought. Such a hard thing to do.

I’ll kill you.

‘You can’t compare what happened to me with what’s happened to you,’ Ginger said, and for a moment she had that wistful look when an old lover is remembered. ‘As I say, he was nice.’ She squeezed my hand. ‘You’re going to get through this and I’m going to help you.’

‘He wants to own me, Ginger.’

She took both my hands in hers and held them hard until they stopped trembling with sickness and fear. She was the best friend I ever had in my life.

‘And what do you want?’ she said.

‘I want him to go away,’ I said.

And then we went to join our men.

‘I can’t believe it’s Thai again,’ Spike complained. ‘Christian always chooses Thai. I’m going to turn into a vegetable spring roll. I’m going to dream about Pahd Thai noodles. I’m going to stop coming round.’

‘Oh, don’t stop coming round,’ Marlon said desperately, looking up from stroking the dog’s belly.

Christian grinned at me. There had been one spectacular Thai meal that I had loved a year ago and since then every time it was Christian’s turn to choose the takeaway, my husband ordered Thai for me.

I smiled back. I knew he was thinking of me but how could I break it to him? Sometimes a girl just wants a good pizza.

Later, after we had demolished green curry, spiced fish cakes, Pahd Thai, chicken satay and, yes, vegetable spring rolls, Spike held up his palm and grinned down at Marlon.

‘Go on, smack it, mate,’ Spike said. ‘Smack it as hard as you can.’

‘Don’t teach that beautiful boy to be a thug,’ Ginger said. ‘He’s not like you, Spike.’

Spike and Ginger loved Marlon with the sense of wonder of grandparents, or childless friends who you suspect are trying, and have been trying for a while. But even if – when – they had their own child, I knew their love for Marlon would be undimmed.