“Hello there.”

Oh God, she’s grinning in that way; you know what I mean, the way that your scary aunty did when you were a child. It’s been a constant stream of them, horny fifty-something widows and divorcées, ever since I boarded the boat. I really am starting to wish I’d listened to my friends who had warned me about the dangers of holidaying alone, on a cruise liner. Don’t misunderstand, if I was less than fifteen years younger than any of them then I would be happy of the attention, but not only am I still in a place where I want my lovers to at least be capable of having children, but I am on holiday alone not to find a replacement for my last one, but to simply get away and forget. Still, I am not able to simply ignore her or anyone else; we are on this relatively small ship together for ten days after all, though thankfully four of them were done;

“Hello. Taking the air?”

She nodded and sat down next to me, unbidden.

“I’ll be honest, I saw you head this way after dinner and I wanted to talk to you.”

My heart sank, the last conversation that had gone this way – after lunch – had been very depressing.