And time is ticking. They’d have less than an hour, Matthew had told her. And nearly all of that has gone. Why is nobody raising Medea? Should she do it? Is Matthew silently wondering why on earth she’s sitting quietly when she should be pitching the hell out of this actress? She sees it all slipping away and begins to feel nauseous with the smell of bleached tablecloth and the soapy-sweet perfume of an aftershave. No one has committed to anything. They’re going through the motions. Emilia probably hasn’t read the script yet but has been told it’s too late to cancel Matthew, a man who she still wants on her side. But this is now a formality before the next rooftop party. Becky has seen it play out countless times. She has done it herself before, once when a script by a friend of a friend came in and, for the sake of her friendship, she spent an hour trying to tell him that he really couldn’t write without sounding anything less than enthused about his writing. Do you think you might buy it, he’d asked her, towards the end of the hour. It needs a few more drafts, she had said, confident that he’d never get round to that.

‘Were you at the gala party?’ Emilia asks Becky.

Becky flushes, wondering if she’s been staring at the actress without realizing it. ‘No, last night I mostly hung out in the loos.’

Emilia laughs.

‘The French do a great fucking ladies’ toilet, so I’m told,’ says Sam.

‘Good company?’ asks Emilia, rubbing at her kohl-lined eye as if it is gritty and bothering her.

‘I didn’t mean to spend so much time there. I got talking to a director and we just sort of failed to head back to the bar.’

‘Which director?’ asks Matthew.

‘Sharon McManus.’

‘Ah, she’s brilliant,’ says Sam. ‘Love her. Has she done one of yours?’ he asks Matthew.

‘No. Tried to get her for the Austen thing,’ he replies.

Becky shifts uncomfortably in her chair, recalling Sharon’s very different version of events. ‘She’d have been great for that,’ she says: marvelling, not for the first time, at Matthew’s capacity to bend the truth in order to reach the finish line. It’s all just talk until the cheque is signed.

‘What do you think of her films?’ Becky puts it to Emilia too bluntly. She has given her no way out if Emilia hasn’t seen them. Does she need a way out? She’s just done a Scorsese film, at the artier end of his spectrum. Does she want to be that kind of actress?