But when he hadn’t called by ten o’clock that night, Olivia started to feel properly frightened. What if he’d had a fall, alone in number four? What if he was lying at the bottom of the stairs with a broken leg? She tortured herself with various scenarios before she threw on her parka and boots and headed outside. The night was black and starless, the pavements icy, the air sharp and cold, as she headed down the deserted high street towards Willoughby Manor.

She was probably overreacting hugely, and Simon might start to wonder if she was some kind of sick bunny boiler, going out to check on him late at night, peering in his windows. In fact, Olivia nearly turned around at the thought—what on earth was she doing?

But then she thought of Simon lying on the floor, bloody and unconscious, and she kept walking.

Willoughby Close looked empty and forlorn as she came into the courtyard. Simon’s car wasn’t parked there, which surprised her. Where was he, if not at home? She peeked in the windows but the curtains were drawn and she couldn’t see anything. After a few indecisive moments she crept away, and spent a restless night wondering where he was and what he was doing, trying not to feed her ever-growing fear that something was wrong.

When her phone pinged early the next morning Olivia scrabbled on her bedside table for it, only to sigh in disappointment when she saw it was Alice, asking her if she and Simon wanted to come over for drinks on New Year’s Eve. Since she wasn’t sure where Simon was and was starting to doubt the nature of their relationship, she decided to answer it later.

After a restorative shower and a large cup of coffee, Olivia was starting to feel more like herself. Simon would almost certainly get in touch today, with a completely reasonable explanation, and she would laugh at her paranoia and never, ever tell him how freaked out she’d become.

She spent the morning tidying the flat and then taking down the Christmas decorations in the shop, getting everything ready for a reopen on January second. She made a shopping list to restock, and fiddled around with some new recipes...checking her phone every few minutes all the while.

In the afternoon she drove into Witney to check on her mum, and they went for a walk around town before having tea at a cute little shop in the Woolgate Centre. When she got back home in the early evening, Simon still hadn’t been in touch and she was starting to panic properly, forgetting all the resolutions she’d made about keeping her cool.

Something had to be wrong. He wouldn’t just go quiet on her like this, not without sending a single text. That wasn’t like him at all, and yet Olivia was forced to acknowledge that she had only known Simon for a handful of weeks, and they’d been dating for less than that. Yes, things had become intense quickly, and she felt as if she knew him...but did she really? What if he was one of those serial monogamists who loved the initial rush of a relationship, but then scarpered off? What if he was like her dad, someone who stayed for the short term but couldn’t handle the long haul?