Month One, Day Five

‘What would you like to do in the next five years?’ Jack asked.

We were lying in bed on a Sunday morning, about four weeks into our relationship, back when we were still ravenous for information about each other, and neither of us were giving it. We both had A Past, and had learnt that sharing our innermost thoughts led only to Heartbreak and Destruction at the hands of the wrong people.

‘Oh, you know,’ I said. ‘I’d like to make more money, buy a cottage in the country, maybe have a child, grow my own asparagus.’

‘I don’t want children,’ he said.

‘Never?’

‘Never.’

We have moved on since then. Yesterday in Henley, I bought two books on conception and a pack of five ovulation tests. I’ve hidden them away. Obsession is never an attractive quality.