I look around the kitchen. It’s still the same beautiful room as it was the first night he fed me dinner and asked me to pretend to be his boyfriend. However, I can see the new additions in the colourful blind that I picked out, in the photos on the fridge and windowsill, and the bright red teapot on the dresser.

I reach out and touch the corner of the photo I like best. It’s a black-and-white shot of the two of us at a party. I’m laughing, and Zeb has his arm round me. A wide smile is splitting his gorgeous face, and his eyes are creased around the edges, but it’s the way he’s looking at me that I love best. As if I’m everything he can see. I smile. It’s the way I look at him too, but he never realises that.

The microwave dings, and, using a tea towel, I grab my food and head into the lounge to eat on the sofa. Clarence jumps up next to me and gazes at me imploringly as if he hasn’t eaten for a decade. I feed him a bit of lasagne and he licks my cheek affectionately afterwards.

Even here I can see my additions. Front and centre is the peony picture that Zeb bought me from the Cotswolds. I’d carried it here, blithely insisting that his place was a better backdrop for it. I’d worried that I was overstepping but he immediately hung it in pride of place over the fireplace, and he had a smile on his face the whole time.

Other bits of me are also here in the new bright cushions on the sofa, the painting I picked out when we were in Paris for the weekend, my trainers lying abandoned under a chair, and the pile of books on the coffee table. He’ll grumble about them, but he won’t be able to hide the smile. It’s as if he loves these signs that I live here as much as I do.

I still with my fork halfway to my mouth. I think I actually do live here now. I calculate quickly how long it’s been since I’ve stayed in my flat, and I can’t remember. I think it was a few weeks ago.

I’ve been back to check on Charlie regularly. I’ll always worry about him and his health, but he patently doesn’t want fussing over and on my last visit he was talking about sharing a flat with Misha. My lip twitches. That should be interesting.