She cups a hand round my ear. ‘Cameron and Kate Winslet have done a house swap, and now Cameron fancies Jude Law, who is Kate’s brother.’

I can feel her breath tickling my skin, and despite everything, certain parts of my body begin reacting fairly predictably. That was another reason this moment felt so exciting first time round: I was realising just how much I fancied her.

I get the sudden urge to turn my head so that we’re face to face. I could kiss her right now. It scares me how much I want to.

But instead I just nod and whisper, ‘Yep, crystal clear, don’t worry.’

She smiles and turns back to the screen.

After an hour or so, the film finally comes to an end. As we shuffle out, I agree strongly with Alice that it was ‘super romantic’, despite having picked up roughly seven words throughout.

By the time we’re back on the street, it’s freezing cold and the sun is already starting to set. We make our way down to the banks of the Seine, where twinkling red-and-white Christmas lights are strung delicately through every tree along the river.

We walk slowly, side by side, taking it all in. Alice is talking about her job now, and I can’t help cringing slightly as she throws around terms like ‘brand awareness’ and ‘synergy’ with an entirely straight face. She’s definitely much more earnest than she was at uni. I think I was quite impressed by this the first time around: I was swept up by how hot she looked, and how confident and sophisticated she seemed. But now, as she starts venting on her ‘useless’ boss and ‘annoying’ colleagues, I can sense a sharpness – a bitterness – I don’t remember her having before.

I can’t help thinking about Daphne: a superstar at her job, too, and yet still kind and modest and funny.

Alice must read my mind somehow, because she switches tack completely as she pulls out another cigarette. ‘You know, I always thought it was such a shame that you and I lost touch after uni.’

‘Yeah.’ I nod. ‘Me too.’

‘Or even before that, really,’ she says. ‘We did everything together in the first term, and then when you came back after Christmas, it was like things had changed.’

I scratch the back of my neck. ‘I know … I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.’

Alice shrugs. ‘No, it was fair enough, I guess. You and Daphne had just started going out, so you had other stuff going on. I was just sad that we didn’t get to hang out together any more. I … missed you.’ She laughs suddenly, as if to soften the impact of that last statement.