Charlie glanced at the first photograph and gave a snort of laughter. ‘Thank God I ditched those glasses and got contact lenses. I don’t know why I ever thought they suited me.’ His brow furrowed. ‘And that side parting is hell. Not to mention that godawful blazer and tie.’ Embarrassed at just how gangly and awkward he looked in the candid snap, taken a decade and a half ago, he felt his stomach clenching and his cheeks burning, a complete antidote to the fiery passion that had been building a moment ago. ‘I honestly don’t remember you taking that picture at the Tube station though. We must have been really drunk – or really tired!’

‘Give yourself a break,’ Holly said. ‘You haven’t seen the one of me, yet.’ She passed him the other photo and Charlie had to suppress another grin. ‘You looked very, er, lovely.’

‘Give it a rest,’ Holly murmured. ‘That skirt length was about ten years too old for me and bobs went out in the early nineties, unless you suited a Rachel cut. I was about the most sensible girl in the world. Hence my interest in party politics, I suppose.’

‘Well, I remember you now,’ Charlie said, a husky note in his voice. ‘And, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to make up for lost time. Fifteen years of lost time, in fact. So, will you dance with me, and kiss me again, and maybe allow me to do a little more than just hold your hand?’

Holly smiled. ‘I’d like that. I’d like that very, very much, Lovely Charlie.’

As their lips met again, Charlie felt his defences begin to come down. He spent so much of his life taking steps to be seen to be doing the right thing, saying the right thing, that to be alone, in this room, with Holly now was a feeling so powerful, he felt himself losing his breath. Fifteen years ago, their paths had crossed so briefly that it hadn’t warranted further exploration, even though he’d never really forgotten that night, that girl. Despite not having recognised her again until now, he did have some sense that he’d kept the memory with him. Who knows what would have happened if the two of them hadn’t been those awkward teenagers in that terribly conventional setting, part of a world that was too old for them, wearing clothes that were too old for them. But now, they’d rediscovered each other, and Charlie wanted to seize the moment.