Omar managed to push him off, blurting out, ‘Jim!’ in shock and outrage. He looked at Jim, and Karen, and Giles, and Lydia, and the whole room staring at him. ‘Man, I’ve got to gargle. That extra chilli on the ‘bab was too much,’ he said, racing out.

‘You idiots,’ he heard Karen shout out to the room after he left. ‘He’s Muslim, you know. I think you’ve really upset him.’

The bathroom was miraculously free, and Omar locked the door and sank on the edge of the bath. He felt like he was the only still point in the spinning world; he’d been exposed, he knew it. He didn’t gargle, even though he felt nauseous. And now his nose was starting to bleed; he hadn’t had a stress-induced nose bleed for months; he held a tissue to it with mechanical despondency. After a few minutes, there was a gentle knocking on the door. ‘Mate, are you in there?’ Jim said quietly. Omar sighed, and wetting his hands, ran his fingers through his hair to cool him down. ‘Omar?’ Jim called out, a bit louder. Omar opened the door and let him in. Jim shut the door, and joined him on the side of the bath. ‘Sorry if I embarrassed you, mate. I just thought a quick kiss would be easier than a naked run round the cloisters, is all. I might have got a bit carried away with the snog. You know me - utter drama queen. Love an audience.’

‘You don’t need to apologize; I probably embarrassed myself more than you did by running off like that.’

‘What happened to your face?’ asked Jim, just noticing the bloody stain on Omar’s upper lip.

Omar checked his reflection in the mirror and washed away the blood at the sink. ‘Nothing, just a nosebleed,’ he said.

Jim nodded and got up to go, but then sat back down again. ‘We’re friends, right? We’ll always be friends. Nothing’s going to change that.’

’Of course not,’ said Omar, surprised.

‘So I can tell you anything, and you won’t get weird. Because we’re friends,’ persisted Jim. Omar nodded, realizing with a sinking heart that perhaps Jim was going to tell him that he and Karen were finally an item.

‘The thing is, the real reason I kissed you wasn’t to avoid a naked run around the cloisters. It was because I thought that the opportunity would never present itself again. That’s all.’ For a moment, Jim sounded totally sincere, and looked almost sheepish, before adding with his usual bravado, ‘Mate, I am so wasted. Do me a favour and ignore everything I say and do tonight. Look, I’m heading back to the party. Are you still up for the bridge at five a.m.?’