To awaken with a sense of displacement was not ideal, but when Jake opened a sleepy eye to the realisation that the woman stirring beside him was not Heather, a cascade of thoughts dispelled his sleepiness. The first was to recognise with shame that he was an adulterer. But this feeling was replaced by an irrefutable logic. Within hours of his wife’s announcement and definitive departure, he and Liffi had been tearing at each other’s clothes in this bedroom. Not before she had pointed out that they were destined to be lovers with such conviction that Jake’s minimal resistance, shaped by his philosophical reflections, was overcome in an instant.
In the cool light of morning, after the awesome passionate entwining of the night before, he understood his emotions. For Heather, he had felt aff
