Music from my iPod was setting my life to a dramatic soundtrack that only I could hear.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so wrapped up in someone that I saw only him, caring not a jot what onlookers might think. I ached with nostalgia for a younger, more responsive me, who seemed to feel things more intensely.

Our break-up had been a resounding anti-climax. I wanted to be wept over, bitterly. I wanted to be fought for. Mourned, or regretted just a little. I wanted to feel like I was someone who’d been worth having in the first place.

I do still love you. I don’t love you enough to be able to give you the things we dreamed about and planned.

I think I'd convinced myself that all long-term relationships end up that way; I really thought I had no right to expect more.

Monochrome contentment or technicolor roller-coaster? No contest, is it?

Oh yes, We've all danced to this particular tune at one time in our lives. In my experience, the majority of women are hopeless romantics, believing that, in time, he'll realise how wonderful we are, and fall in love with us....

I do still love you. I don't love you enough to be able to give you the things we dreamed about and planned.

Our break-up had been a resounding anti-climax. I wanted to be wept over, bitterly. I wanted to be fought for. Mourned, or regretted just a little.I wanted to feel like I was someone who'd been worth having in the first place.

The reason for my discomfort was simple. Our story - however romantic I could make it sound in my head - sometimes sounded a little tawdry in the re-telling. There was no escaping the fact that I'd been living with the father of my child when we met; that I'd cheated on him, then left; that what James and I now shared was born out of the ruins of another relationship.