Have u been watering them? When can I collect them? Stephen: Sorry. They shrivelled up & died just like our love. It was surprising the number of people who seemed to think I was well shot of Blake when I told them we’d broken up. My friends had nicknamed him ‘Bland’ and even my mother dismissed him with ‘he wasn’t really that special, was he?’. Initially I felt indignant and wounded—after all it was a slur upon my taste. But eventually I came to appreciate the effort my close friends and mother had made despite their reservations. It also made things a lot easier post-breakup when no one wanted to keep in touch with him. If anyone had insisted on maintaining a friendship with him, I would have found it aggravating. More than a month passed before I finally confided the details of our break-up to Elisabeth, but to my surprise, she responded with great nonchalance. ‘So he’s run off with the neighbour? Oh well, these things happen,’ she remarked airily, ‘but they don’t necessarily last all that long.
