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Around mid-February news reached them that Thomas had a new girlfriend. She was Marcy, the woman who’d told Tara at Eddie’s birthday party that she was trying to get pregnant from a sperm bank.

‘It figures,’ Tara said, bravely. ‘She must be really desperate.’ Though everyone rallied round it was a major setback for her. ‘The jealousy is killing me,’ she admitted, taut and pale. ‘All I can think of is how nice he used to be to me.’

‘He was never nice to you.’ Katherine attempted to cheer her up.

‘Yes, he was, Katherine. He was lovely in the beginning. He was mad about me and he acted like I was gorgeous. Why else would I have got off with him? And why else did I stay with him for so long?’

‘You tell me.’

‘Because I was trying to get back to the way it was in the beginning. I know I’m well out of it, but I still feel he’s mine. And now he’s being lovely to her instead of me.’

‘He’ll make her life a misery.’

‘That’s no comfort. It should be my life he’s making a misery.’ Tara put her head in her hands and moaned, ‘I’m just so tired of feeling this way. And what makes it twenty times worse is that she’s so bloody skinny.’

‘Have you looked in a mirror lately?’ Katherine eyed Tara’s starved and Stairmastered body.

‘She’s permanently skinny,’ Tara whispered. ‘She’s a real skinny person. I’m only an impostor and I’ll be fat again soon.’ Then she rallied, courageously. ‘This is just another hurdle. Once I’m over this I’ll be much better. It just means,’ she added sadly, ‘that now there really is no going back.’

‘But you weren’t going to go back.’ Sandro was shocked.

‘No, but… It’s a new level of “over” when your ex meets someone new.’ She smiled weakly. ‘It’s a shock. And it’s not pleasant to think of him getting on with his life without me.’

‘But you’re getting on with your life without him,’ Liv consoled.

‘Ah, I’m not really. I haven’t met someone else. It really pisses me off that it always takes men no time whatsoever to hook up with someone new. Three months is all it took him. It’s very unfair.’

‘You could hook up with someone if you were really desperate,’ Fintan pointed out. ‘You’ve managed to sleep with two men in the last month.’

Tara shuddered. ‘Blind-drunk one-night stands with two of the most hideous men in the northern hemisphere. Elephant Man and Elephant Man’s ugly brother. I only slept with them to get some affection.’

‘Them’s the rules.’ Fintan was jolly. ‘Women have sex with men for affection, men are affectionate to women to have sex with them.’

‘One-night stands make me feel even worse. They’re really not worth it,’ Tara insisted.

‘How’s that sweetheart Ravi?’ Fintan asked, innocently.

‘Ravi? The Ravi who I work with? The Ravi who’s three years younger than me? The Ravi who stays up all night playing Nintendo? The Ravi who thought Die Hard was a documentary? That Ravi? He’s fine, Fintan, why do you ask?’

‘Only being polite.’ He smirked. ‘Is he still going out with Danielle?’

‘No, they split up at Christmas.’

‘Is that right?’ Fintan and Sandro nudged each other in delight. ‘Is – that – right? So he’s on the loose. You could do worse than consider him.’

Tara looked darkly at Fintan. ‘If I ever even think about it, somebody shoot me.’

The next day, Tara bumped into Amy in the entrance hall at work.

‘Hi.’ Amy beamed. ‘How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages. Not since before Christmas.’

‘Oh, cripes.’ Tara put her face in her hands. ‘I’ve just remembered. I met you that awful day when I was plastered and throwing up. Oh, the shame.’

‘Don’t worry. I got alcohol poisoning that night, and had to get an injection in my bum to stop me vomiting.’

Tara laughed in relief. She was in awe of Amy’s pre-Raphaelite beauty and it was nice to know she was human.

‘We really must go out one night,’ Amy went on. ‘Unless you’ve got back with your bloke?’

Tara shook her head heavily.

‘I don’t know if you remember, but I told you that my boyfriend has a lovely friend called Benjy, and I bet you two would really like each other.