Gilly went to get her phone. She had a number of cab companies on ‘Favourites’. As she looked through the list she wondered if she should tell him to cancel the trip to Vienna and decided ‘no time like the present’.

She waited until the cab had arrived, however. ‘By the way, Leo, I don’t think I want to go to Vienna after all. At least, not in June. It’s just too inconvenient.’

He sighed, obviously being patient with the whims of a woman. ‘Why don’t you sleep on it? I’ll leave the information that I’ve printed off. It’s got a link to the hotel on it.’

Gilly smiled and nodded, feeling cowardly but also that she’d been run over by a Savile Row-suited steamroller and so her cowardice was justified.

As he left Gilly noticed he had cat hair on the seat of his trousers. He would not appreciate that. But she’d had Ulysses a lot longer than she’d known Leo. If she had to choose between them, it would have to be Uly.

Gilly’s emotions were mixed. Part of her felt she’d probably lost the silver fox that her friends envied her for having and so was regretful. The other part hoped she had: the thought made her feel liberated, in the same way she had when she’d finally navigated the tortuous divorce proceedings her ex-husband put her through. After all, Leo might be a silver fox but he was high maintenance. She enjoyed cooking for people and loved to be appreciated, but she wondered if she would ever get to the stage with Leo that they could just eat cheese on toast in front of the telly. He’d probably want her to go on a diet, too, in case she got just a bit too plump to be presentable.

After she had put on some music to tidy the kitchen by, she examined her feelings. Supposing she couldn’t go to Vienna, how did she feel? Relieved, she realised. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, she did, but not in the high-powered, high-end way that Leo would arrange.

She switched on the overfilled dishwasher. Next question. How would she feel if she never saw Leo again? This wasn’t quite so clear, she realised. Part of her was definitely relieved but part of her would wonder if she’d made the right decision. He was gorgeous, by anyone’s standards, and the fact that he was courting her, a middle-aged woman, was very flattering.