The floorboards squeak under me suddenly, and I realise I’ve been standing here looking at Daff for a period of time that may have slipped beyond romantic, and into Walking-Dead-guy-in-Love-Actually territory. As I enter the room, she looks up and gives me the full wattage of her incredible smile.

‘There you are. I wondered where you’d …’ And then she spots the trays. ‘Oh my God. No. Way.’

I nod. ‘Way. Oh yes. Surprise Christmas breakfast in bed.’

She puts her book down, shaking her head. ‘I mean … this is next-level. Does this even happen in real life? I thought it was just a sitcoms-and-films thing.’

‘What can I say? I’m just a really, really great guy.’

She nods solemnly. ‘That does appear to be the case.’

I lay the tray down with a flourish across her lap, and she laughs. ‘Thank you.’ She takes my hand and squeezes it. ‘Seriously, this is lovely.’

I squeeze back. ‘No worries. How are you feeling?’

She picks up a rasher of crispy bacon and bites off the end. ‘Mmm. Good.’

‘You, or the bacon?’

She laughs. ‘Both. The bacon and I are both great.’

‘Good.’ I slide into bed next to her, settling my own tray on top of the duvet.

‘The bigger question,’ Daff says, a smile playing on her lips, ‘is how are you feeling?’

I wince. ‘Was I that bad last night?’

She grins. ‘No, you were great! My colleagues all loved you. I think everyone was a bit weirded out by how great you were, to be honest. After previous work Christmas Eve dos.’

‘I know, I know. Don’t remind me.’

She lays her head on my shoulder. ‘I loved seeing you talking to them all about the teaching stuff.’

‘Ha. I hope I didn’t ramble on too much.’

‘No! I can’t tell you how amazing it is to see you actually being proud of what you’re doing. And you were so funny with Nadia and Sarah.’ She kisses my neck and looks up at me. ‘You weren’t faking, right? You did genuinely enjoy yourself?’

I put my arm around her. ‘Yeah. I genuinely did.’

I mean it, too. Daff’s annual Christmas Eve work do used to instil a pathetic sort of dread in me. I’d worry about it for weeks beforehand, certain that everyone there would be secretly looking down on me, or wondering what Daff was still doing with me. But last night, none of those thoughts even crossed my mind. For the first time, I found I was able to just relax and have fun.

‘I’ll be honest, though, I am a bit hung-over,’ I add, yawning widely. ‘You don’t mind that I ended up having a few, do you?’