“What do you mean?” “What I say.” The words were blurred and indistinct, as though they were all that remained after tears had been choked away. “Liz and I slept together. Yes, that shocks you, doesn’t it? Yet it’s true. I say “slept”, but we made love for a couple of hours and then she said she had to go. It was last Christmas Eve. You remember, when the snow fell? The shop had closed, the takings were good and we’d been celebrating, with too much to drink. Liz was on the Bacardis. Suddenly she put her arm round me and asked if by any chance I wanted her. I was lost for words, but she simply laughed and told me to hail a cab for a hotel at the other end of town. We had a room the size of a shoebox and a bed that screeched each time we moved, but none of it mattered to me. I had her and it was the moment I’d been waiting for half my life.” He took a deep breath and continued, “I don’t need to describe how I felt.
