‘If you’re going to condemn me, and look, I condemn myself, then that was the moment to have some backbone and say, No, we’re not going to do that. Sit and talk, yes. But the rest is over with. And I protested a little but not very strongly. Now, I have to ask a very awkward question. Because I’m committed to being utterly honest with you here about what happened and what was in my head, but equally I don’t want to embarrass you with the grisly details, so would you rather I gloss over things or can I speak freely?’

‘Speak freely,’ she says, because what else could she say?

‘OK. Well, what happened was, she got onto my lap and I realized, or rather she made me realize, that she had no underwear on beneath her dress. Sorry. And it was this very odd moment for me, because for me it was all organic. It was just sort of happening. But for her, she’d come without underwear, or she’d slipped away to take it off, which made it a seduction. Does that make sense?’

Becky finds herself saying Yes not because it would make sense to her in that situation but because he is telling the story as if it would make sense to him, a man with expectations and appetites. And if she said No? She wouldn’t hear what happened next.

‘And so I was caught,’ he continues. ‘I wanted to sleep with her but I could also see that this was nothing but trouble for me. And bear in mind that I was drunk, too, by then. This is sort of what I can recall. And what happened next was … Well, it’s really hard to explain. And I feel terribly ashamed of it.’

She feels a slight caving inward, at how the admission of a weakness makes her warm toward him. We all make mistakes.