It didn’t help that her mum was being so sickeningly happy and loved-up all the time. Was there anything more pukesome than your mum with a new boyfriend? Hello? If anyone should be blushing and feeling fluttery in their family, it was her, the actual sixteen-year-old, not her cringey old mum. Even Jack was having more luck than Izzie, now that he’d clapped eyes on Amelia and seemed revoltingly pleased with himself. It made Izzie feel more of a freak than ever.

As for George, well, he was a whole other problem.

Izzie still burned with embarrassment whenever she thought about the first time she’d seen him back in the spring. She’d been out at Wagamama in town for Tej’s birthday treat, and a group of them were sitting at a table by the window, cracking open their chopsticks and tucking into steaming mounds of yaki soba, as the conversation turned to boys at school. Miko was swooning on about Ryan Michaels, in the sixth form, and Ruby was sighing shiny-eyed about Conor Perry; and even Tej, who had recently come out, was joining in, confessing her crush on Lia Mendelson in a breathless, excited sort of way. Izzie had kept quiet, not really having anything to contribute, until Lily had elbowed her and said, ‘Go on then, who do you fancy at school, Iz?’

‘God, no one at school,’ Izzie had said, possibly too quickly and defensively. ‘They’re all so lame and immature. Give me an older guy any day.’

She wasn’t even sure where this had come from – a bluster, a bluff, to try and throw the limelight away from herself. There was no older guy on her mind whatsoever. The whole idea of falling in love with anyone seemed remote and impossible to her; it was something for other people to get all weird about. Unfortunately, her friends took her comment at face value.

‘What, an older guy like him?’ Tej sniggered, pointing across the restaurant to where an elderly gentleman with a magnificent curly white moustache sat alone with a bowl of noodle soup.

The others fell about tittering and Izzie felt her face grow hot. She had very pale skin that went from milk to lobster in the space of seconds, and she hated wearing her embarrassment so publicly. ‘Not like him! Like . . .’ Izzie scoured the restaurant for inspiration – absolutely none – then turned her attention to the world outside. ‘Like him,’ she said triumphantly, pointing a chopstick.

They’d all stared at the good-looking guy striding confidently along Clarence Street in dark jeans with a cool purple shirt. Okay, so he was middle-aged, she realized in the next moment, nearer her dad’s age in fact, but he was undeniably handsome, tall and with this sexy sort of walk. Yeah, he’d do.

‘Mmmm,’ said Miko approvingly, and Izzie’s tension eased a fraction. ‘That’s definitely a man, not a boy.’