Her mouth was a flat line. ‘You’re quite naive sometimes, Andrew. I’d like to meet Sasha. I want to get to know everyone who’s special to you. But she won’t like me.’ She went back to her magazine. ‘Just wait and see.’

After dinner, Charlie brightened. Once our food had gone down, she said she was going to freshen up and disappeared into the bathroom, then the bedroom. She was in there for a while and I could hear her singing to herself. She was actually a terrible singer but I found it endearing that she didn’t care. She was singing a Katy Perry song, humming the lines she couldn’t remember. After a while, she called for me to come into the bedroom.

I found her sitting on the bed wearing lingerie I hadn’t seen before: expensive-looking, lacy and pure white.

‘I’ve got a surprise for you.’ She nodded towards the chest of drawers. ‘We’re going to make a movie.’

A video camera sat on the chest of drawers, pointing towards the bed.

‘You mean . . . a sex tape?’

‘Uh-huh.’ She had a wicked smile on her face. ‘Something special, just for me and you. Don’t worry, I promise not to put it on YouTube. And you have to promise not to show it to anyone.’

‘I promise.’

This was exciting. I stripped to my underwear and joined her on the bed. After a long kiss, she jumped up and adjusted the focus on the camera, pressed a couple of buttons.

‘Action,’ she giggled.

I felt self-conscious at first, aware of the camera pointing at us, feeling like I was being watched not by an inanimate piece of technology but by human eyes, staring, judging. But as Charlie and I kissed and touched each other and I grew more and more aroused, I relaxed and forgot about the camera.

I think it would be accurate to say that neither Charlie nor I were in charge in the bedroom. There wasn’t one dominant party, one submissive. Sometimes, though, one of us would lead and on this occasion it was Charlie. She was the director here, and she prompted me with her lips, her tongue, her fingers. She moved her body so I would know what to do. She whispered for me to go slowly, faster, softer, harder. She ensured we were positioned so the camera could capture everything.

When we’d finished, when the tape was no longer running and we were both sated, exhausted, Charlie said, ‘I can’t wait to watch it.’

‘Hmm. Me too.’

She wriggled closer to me, warm and affectionate, her hair tickling my nose. ‘I’ve never done that before.’

I didn’t respond.

We were silent for a minute and then Charlie said, ‘Have you?’