‘Aren’t you a girl?’

You shake your head, fighting a smile. ‘Aren’t you a girl? I mean, you kind of look like one.’

Emma laughs, a rich, throaty sound. ‘Firstly, fuck you, kind of? And secondly, I got my honorary man card a long time ago. I’m like a double agent.’ She swirls what’s left of her drink with her straw. ‘They could kick me out of the girls’ bathroom for telling you this stuff, so keep it to yourself, okay?’

You laugh reluctantly. ‘Okay, come on, then. What are these magic words of wisdom I’m not getting?’

Emma yawns and stretches. ‘Hey, I’m not a mind-reader. You tell me what happened, and I’ll tell you what went wrong.’

You hesitate for a moment – but really, what do you have to lose?

‘Okay.’ You take a breath. ‘After the ball, we kind of… we got into a fight. A big one.’

Emma nods impatiently. ‘Yeah, no shit, you had a fight. What happened, though? Give me details.’

‘Ah… she said we’d been taking things too fast.’ Emma absorbs that, eyes intent. ‘Then she said I might be – well, she said she didn’t want this to be a rebound thing, but she wasn’t sure.’ That stings a little just to say out loud. ‘Then she said she couldn’t deal with all of this at the same time, and she needed time to think.’

Emma stirs her coffee thoughtfully. ‘Okay. Yeah. Kind of what I expected, to be honest.’

‘That doesn’t really make me feel better,’ you say heavily.

Emma looks up sharply. ‘Why? Do you feel like she was making out like it was your fault? Because that’s not what it sounds like to me.’

‘Ah…’ You wince at the memory of it. ‘It wasn’t like it was all my fault, but… yeah, kind of got that impression. I mean, if we’re taking things too fast, maybe I should’ve held back…’

Emma’s shaking her head. ‘Takes two to tango, man, and I bet she was up for it at the time. What that all sounds like to me is your regular, predictable, standard-issue female insecurity.’ She gestures with her straw. ‘As in, she saw her ex, a load of shit came rushing back, and she panicked and pushed you away before you could hurt her too.’