‘That’s the tricky part. She’s really into sport – she supports Arsenal, for her sins – and she loves swimming. Other than that, normal stuff.’ I shrugged. ‘Stuff that girls like.’

‘Stroking kittens, knitting, cooing over babies. That kind of thing?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Having their nipples slowly licked while their boyfriend slides ever so slowly into them . . .’

‘Actually, Tilly is the only woman I know who’s even ruder than you.’

Charlie smiled. ‘I’d love to meet her.’

‘You will.’

‘And I’ll try to think of some ideas. You’re clearly a bit useless at that kind of stuff.’

‘True. Thank you.’

‘So. What I was saying about nipples . . .’

Charlie went home in the afternoon to do laundry and ‘some woman stuff,’ as she put it.

‘Not meeting your other boyfriend?’

She didn’t think it was funny. ‘I’m a one hundred per cent monogamous person. I hope you are too.’

‘Yes, of course.’ I pulled her against me. ‘Like I’d have enough energy left anyway.’

She kissed me softly. ‘That’s what I like to hear.’

It was the first exchange we’d had that made me think that she saw us as boyfriend-girlfriend. Some men might have been frightened by this development but I was delighted.

When she came back later, she was carrying several carrier bags full of shopping. She produced a market stall’s worth of fresh vegetables from one bag – broccoli, red and yellow peppers, plump tomatoes, button mushrooms, a cauliflower smeared with mud – and a variety of spices and pulses from another. The third bag contained two bottles of wine. She opened one, commanded me to relax and have a drink and set about cooking what turned out to be the best curry I’ve ever eaten.

She rolled a couple of spliffs too, one of which she smoked with me while she was waiting for dinner to cook. I wasn’t normally into drugs of any kind – hadn’t been since university – but the weed made me feel so chilled and giggly that I wondered why I didn’t do it more often. After dinner I laid the quilt on the living room floor and we made slow, stoned love to a playlist of old soul classics Charlie found on Spotify: Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway. Writhing in slow motion on the floor, it felt like we were making love for hours, the rest of the world eradicated by the intense focus of our desire for each other. It was extraordinary, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was like being in a fugue state, my whole body alive and humming, wanting to consume Charlie, to devour her, my mouth all over her, and hers all over me.