"Right. So anyway, we talked all afternoon. And we decided to meet up one evening and see a film. Which we did." Charlie stopped, and sighed- again. "Are you sure you want to know all this?"

"Well, if I didn't need to know, you wouldn't have started the story, would you?" She smiled, softly, trying to make eye contact with him.

"Yeah, I guess. She was my first real girlfriend. I mean, not my first, just, my first serious relationship. We were really close. Matt and James used to get annoyed with us, we were always together." He smiled, and looked at her. "And then she got a modelling job. I wasn't surprised, she'd always wanted to do it, and she was good enough to do it. You've seen the photos�"His smile faded.

"So she was always travelling. One week she was in Paris, the next god knows where. I never seemed to get a full week with her. And then we started to get serious with the band, so I could hardly see her. I left message after message on her phone to arrange something, but she was always busy."

"And then, a couple of weeks ago, I was at the Pen & Wig, and I saw one of her mates there, and she told me she was staying down the road with her. So Kerri gave me the key so I could go in and surprise her. Basically, I caught her with this bloke. One of the photographers, I think he was." He paused.

"Oh, God�"Steph put her coffee mug down on the table, and took his hands in hers.

Charlie cleared his throat.

"I got out of there, and headed back here. And I called into the off-licence, and there was this girl in front of me buying a lottery ticket. I'd seen her around, before Annabelle had come back, and I was putting off asking her out. And then, Anna showed up, and it sounds awful, but I sorta forgot about her for a bit. And it didn't really matter cause I knew she was with someone anyway." He stood up and walked over to the window. He picked up a small photo frame, and looked at it for a second.

"She was this photographer's girlfriend� Her boyfriend was cheating on her, and she didn't even know it." He sat next to Steph and handed her the photo frame.

Steph realised where she'd seen the girl in the photos in hall from; she was Charlie's ex girlfriend. She was the girl who had used her lipstick earlier that morning; the girl she'd found in her bed with her boyfriend.