THE GIRLS WERE sitting around a high table when she got up there, and they all did such an obvious once-over it was annoying. But Cormac didn’t seem to notice, apart from going slightly pink, but that might just have been the environment. It was loud in there and of course—of course—everyone found it very difficult to understand what he was saying, whether by design or on purpose, because they found him quaint.

“So you’re a nurse?” said Portia emphatically, as if she’d never met someone who did such a pedestrian job in her entire life, which in fact was quite likely.

“Aye,” said Cormac. “I follow up—try and keep people out of hospital. Lot of post-op stuff, wound care, that kind of stuff.”

“Oh, so you’re not in a hospital?” said Portia, frowning her perfectly Botoxed brow. “Do you ride around on a little bicycle? How adorable!”

Kalitha, a slender art dealer Larissa had met during a course at the Courtauld, simply glanced at him up and down, then turned to Ithica sitting next to her and carried on with the conversation as if he weren’t there, which made Larissa feel an anxious tremor of annoyance and shame. She had thought that this would be nice, or different, but instead they were all being rude and snotty, and she was completely annoyed that they were theoretically her friends.

Portia turned her attention to the cocktail menu.

“What do you want to drink?” Larissa asked him.

Cormac was boggling at the prices, utterly astounded. Cocktails were £15! Minimum! £15!! He looked up. If he had to get a round in, that would be £75. Getting a round in at Eck’s was £12. He had the money—he didn’t spend much at home and his cottage didn’t cost much to rent. And he wasn’t tight; he was always the first to put his hand in his pocket. It was just the very idea of it; spending so much on so little seemed to him not so much worrying as totally and utterly immoral, when £75 could buy so much or do so much.

A worse thought struck him. He was here with four women, which meant as a gentleman he’d normally insist on paying for all of their drinks. If everyone had four cocktails—and, oh my God, he just realized two of them were drinking from a bottle of champagne—he was going to spend as much as the price of a small car.