If only affluence bred confidence. The vow I’d made to Tomas to take the bull of romance by its love-sharpened horns has not sufficiently taken into account my aversion to blood sports. Liz remains ungored and unasked out.

Panicking, I sought refuge in the crossword. Two hours dripped by and all I had to show for my efforts was 17 across:

PEDETENTOUS (adj.): proceeding slowly.

Saturday May 12th

Dylan went inside while Sophie lectured me on the doorstep. GCSEs begin in a couple of weeks and I need to be more supportive of Dylan in his revision, she says. Unless I pull my socks up, he won’t get the grades of which he is capable, apparently. I listened sulkily.

‘He says it’s hard to concentrate at your house,’ she said.

‘That’ll be the students next door. They always play their music too loud. I’ll have another word. And then there’s Mrs McNulty and her sawing. I really don’t know what on earth it is that she’s making. I sometimes wonder wheth—’

‘It’s not the neighbours.’

‘Well, I can’t deny that the cat does make it diffic—’

‘Not the cat. You, Brian.’

‘Me?’

‘Dylan says that you’re always trying to distract him.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Reading him poems. Showing him tweets and videos. Suggesting films to watch. Dressing the cat up as a pirate.’

I smiled at the memory of the cat beneath her skull and crossbones tricorn.

‘I’m wondering whether he shouldn’t visit until his exams are over,’ she said.

I unsmiled. I promised to try harder. I’d remain focused. Do whatever was necessary. Help him as best I can. I went back inside. Dylan was reaching in his bag for his chemistry textbook.

‘Today,’ he announced solemnly, ‘it’s atomic structures and oxides.’

Sunday May 13th

Leak-end

With the day stretching ahead of me like a cat on a lap, it felt like the ideal opportunity to get in touch with Liz. I started to read Money.

It is 400 pages long! Ordinarily, I’d have no chance of completing it in time but given that I shall have more free time on my hands soon, I think this is very do-able.

The thought occurred to me that this may well be my last ‘weekend’, in a traditional sense; such distinctions between the working week and Saturday and Sunday will probably blur as my new life as a professional writer begins. With such idle daydreams the hours did pass, and by the time I stretched to turn my bedside light off, I’d already broken the back of page five.

Monday May 14th