Polyamory: could it cure my loneliness this Valentine's Day?

Tonight is a first for me. Not that I’m the Virgin Mary, I’ve had a dating column for years, but tonight for the first time there’ll be two people meeting me in a bar near my flat. Every couple that walks in and doesn’t scout for a third party is clearly on one of those boring one-on-one dates I used to go on (how old hat). This Valentine’s Day, having dating men and women separately, I’m trying my hand at polyamory. Unless I’m stood up, of course.

Luckily, I’m not. The pair I recognise from walk in five minutes late (which feels like five hours late because this is a different kind of tension completely). “Lucy?” they ask and I stand, wondering who I should hug hello to first. I decide on the woman. Chrissy, 31, is brunette and looks plainer than her pictures but has a huge smile. She is dressed casually, in a way that seems slightly non-committal. I know from talking to her slim, hipster partner, Billy, 34, on the app that