“I wonder what bit reminds him of us”

I’M in the cinema with my husband.

We’re watching a film about Gerri and Tom, two halves of pretty much a perfect couple on the cusp of old age. In a late night scene, early on in the film, they’re lying in bed and chatting in the intimate, desultory way of long married, affectionate couples.

My husband finds my hand and puts it in his. ‘Just like us,’ he whispers. Without, I think, a trace of irony.