Omar felt reckless. He had no idea why he instinctively said what he said next, except that he was drunk, and suddenly wanted to get all the doubt out in the open, to let that sword of Damocles finally fall. If it was going to happen, why not make it happen now?

‘Kiss Karen,’ he said loudly, collapsing onto a cushion at the edge of the circle.

Karen, who was flushed prettily with the heat and the drink, looked at Omar with a combination of outright surprise and gratitude.

‘Easy,’ Jim said, and bounding up to her, took her in his arms and kissed her chastely on the lips. Karen tried to smile and giggle, but only Omar could see that she was disappointed that he hadn’t done anything more daring.

‘That was rubbish,’ said Giles, who had smoked enough dope to get over the fact that he wasn’t allowed to drink. ‘You’re not eight years old. Open your mouths.’

‘OK, but no tongues,’ said Jim, and kissed her more fulsomely, a soap opera kiss.

The bottle span again, and landed on Jim once more. This is bloody rigged,’ Jim said, picking up the bottle and inspecting it, before draining the dregs of warm liquid still clinging to the bottom. ‘Dare,’ he said again.

‘Kiss Omar - with tongues,’ said Lydia, getting into the spirit of it, and was gratified to hear squeaks of excitement from the others.

Jim looked at Omar and raised a quizzical eyebrow towards him. Omar, who had been staring at his feet since the Karen kiss that he had stupidly been responsible for, looked up. ‘What? No way, man. That would be gross! It would be like incest, or something,’ he protested vigorously.

Lydia shrugged. ‘You know the rules - if either party backs out on a truth or dare, they have to run round the cloisters naked three times.’

’Cool, we win either way,’ burped Jim.

‘When did those rules come into play?’ said Omar. ‘I don’t remember agreeing to that.’

‘We must have made them while you were upstairs,’ said Lydia.

‘Come on, mate,’ said Jim. ‘I’m not running round without pants in this weather. Stick your tongue down my throat and we’re done.’

‘Why tongues?’ protested Omar again. ‘Karen didn’t have to do tongues.’

‘That’s because Karen’s a lady, and it’s bad enough that you made her snog Jimmy in the first place with his kebab breath,’ said Giles, blowing out smoke in a deeply mellow manner.

‘Oh, let them off, you guys,’ said Karen. ‘It’s not fair if Omar wasn’t here when we did the rules.’

While Omar opened his mouth to protest again, Jim strode over to him and, pinning him down by the shoulders, kissed him even more fulsomely than he had Karen, with lots of tongue, to the cheers of the room.