Before Sally could reply Benjamin told her that they did. ‘Believe me, Odile,’ he gave her a winsome smile which Sally imagined he had practised at the mirror, believing it to be cute – personally such sycophancy made her want to vomit, ‘Sally will bring you a plate of petits fours to die for.’ Beaming from ear to ear, he then swanned off back to the kitchen.

Sally managed not to say out loud, ‘And with any luck they will choke you.’ She hastily placed the bill on the nearby table and retired once again to the kitchen to fetch the coffees . . . and the petits fours.

‘What’s bitten you tonight?’ asked Benjamin. ‘Everyone is so famous and glamorous. And you actually know two of them! If I had famous friends I’d be over the moon.’

As she poured the coffees Sally gritted her teeth. Benjamin was right. She did seem to be in a foul mood all the time these days. She wondered what was wrong with her. She felt stupid and hurt. It was how she remembered feeling in the school playground. But how could she have let two people from her past get to her like this? She was happy with her life out here. Wasn’t she? She’d escaped from an unhappy marriage and divorce and regained her independence here in Bellevue-sur-Mer. And yet, in just a few days, her whole outlook had changed so violently. She had been perfectly content until that stupid mosaic medallion failed to bring in the promised fortune. How shallow had she become? And these two shadows from her past were probably the only people in the business who had made her feel so small. No other job cast a shadow. But it was all so long ago. She was no longer a lowly assistant stage manager. They couldn’t report her to the company manager and get her sacked. If they wanted to carry on living in the past, that was fine. But she was the person with a lovely house here and a life full of sunshine and great friends. She must pull herself together and make the most of everything she had now, rather than suffering for a world of long ago.

When she got back to the dining room, she was just in time to catch the shell-suited family of six trooping out into the street, sated after their free and gratis water and lavatory break. ‘We don’t like any of this stuff you serve here,’ Danny’s wife called over her shoulder. ‘We really wanted a kebab, not this foreign muck.’

It took every ounce of self-control Sally possessed not to crash the tray of coffee down on to the mosaic floor and stand there screaming till she passed out.

As she approached the Markhams, Sally caught Phoo and Odile giggling into their hands.

Calm! Calm!

But it was impossible.

She plonked the coffees down.