‘Yeah, I sort of did on the phone earlier. I don’t think he wants to listen. But I just know she’s wrong for him.’

She swallows a bite of her sandwich. ‘How do you know? You can’t know someone’s wrong for someone.’

‘Why not? You can know someone’s right for someone.’ I’m not sure where this comment comes from, but clearly Daff thinks it’s about us, because she leans into me and says, ‘Smoooooth.’

A brightly coloured boat full of loud pissed people in tuxedos and ball gowns floats slowly past us on the river. When it’s finally out of earshot, Daff turns to me and says, ‘I think I knew you were right for me pretty much straight away.’

I look at her. ‘Seriously? How come?’

She shuffles even closer to me on the bench. ‘Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.’ I laugh involuntarily at that, as it’s the sort of statement you tend to hear in films rather than in real life. But Daff just shrugs and continues. ‘I know it sounds cheesy, but honestly, it’s true. D’you remember our first date?’

‘What, at the cinema?’

She nods, and the memory comes trickling back. After that night in the maze, I spent the entire Christmas holidays moping about at home, wondering if I should text her, wondering why she hadn’t texted me, and generally counting the days until uni restarted and I’d be able to bump into her. And then, two days into the new term, I did bump into her. We chatted for a while outside the library, and she mentioned that she fancied seeing that Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice film that had just come out. Seeing my chance, I told her I was desperate to see it too, and, hey, why didn’t we go together?

‘I took the bus into town to meet you at that pub first, d’you remember?’ she says. ‘And it sounds weird because we’d only actually met once at that point, but I’d thought about you a lot over the holidays, and I was really nervous about seeing you again. So I started daydreaming on the bus, thinking about that kiss in the maze, and what might happen tonight. And in the end, I got so caught up in these stupid daydreams that I completely missed my stop.’ She breaks off and laughs into the steam rising from her cup. ‘I ended up in Clifton bus depot. That’s when I knew you were probably more than just a crush.’

I’m laughing now too, and despite the bitter cold, I can feel a warm glow spreading gradually through my body. ‘So that’s why you were late that night?’ I say. ‘You told me your washing machine flooded!’