I get my phone out as the cab inches forward again. I look up. The lights are on red, but I cannot miss my opportunity. This has to happen now.

I scroll through until I find his name, and then I press 'call'. I stifle a giggle. I try and catch the cabbie's eye in the rear-view mirror. He will not believe this. What a coincidence! Two people who know each other, quite near each other! But the cabbie is listening to Jon Gaunt on talkSPORT shouting about immigrants and thus probably not in the market for friend-based whimsy.

The call connects and I hear the ringtone. I watch, a smile plastered right across my face, as immediately, my friend lowers his newspaper, takes a sip of his coffee, and reaches into his pocket for his phone.

I try and come up with a witty thing to say when he picks up. Maybe I'll start with a wry, 'Enjoying your coffee?' and then he will laugh, and then look startled, because how did I know? Or maybe I'll say, 'Hey, what's in the newspaper?' and that would be funny too, because how did I know he had a newspaper?

I chuckle and decide to just go with the moment and follow my heart, and there is a tense moment as the ring-ring continues, and my friend has to turn his phone the right way round, and now he's looking at the screen, and he can see my name, and he's not smiling yet but he will be, and he finds the right button, and he ...

Oh.

'Hello, I'm unable to take your call right now. Please do leave a message after the beep.'

Eh?

There's been some kind of mistake! It's gone straight to answerphone! He must've accidentally pressed 'Divert'!

I stare at my friend, and I blink a couple of times. He puts his phone away and shakes his paper, and picks up his coffee and takes a long sip.

And like that, I am dismissed.

Beep.

I am startled. What do I say? What message do I leave? I can't say, 'Are you enjoying your coffee?' Who knows when he'll listen to this? What if he's nowhere near a coffee? I'll sound mental. Do I tell him I could see him? But then he'll know he rebuffed me! And he'll know I know he rebuffed me!

'Hi!' I say, and then I clear my throat. 'Yes ... me here. Danny. Just phoning to ... you know ... say ... I hope ... newspaper's good.'

I hang up. Newspaper's good? What the hell does that mean?

And then the lights change, and the cab roars into action, and we move off through the streets of Soho, leaving my friend and his coffee far behind.

'It's hard to argue with him, isn't it?' says the cabbie, but he's referring to Jon Gaunt, who is very easy to argue with, because he's always wrong.