He paces round and round the living room, occasionally slapping his forehead. When he puts on his coat but doesn’t grab the lead, Fitz snorts and turns away. Dan wants to shake paws. Needs the constant unconditional love of his four-legged friend. But Fitz curls in his basket with his back to Dan and sighs as if his problems are bigger. Dan feels guilty. You can’t look like you’re going to take a dog for a walk and then not do it. Fitz would never do that to him.

‘Fitz, old pal, I’m sorry. Come on, say bye to me. I’ll come back at lunchtime to walk you,’ Dan says, stroking the silky fur behind his ears. Fitz, who normally groans with joy when having his ears touched, pretends to be asleep.

‘Come on, Fitzeroo, don’t do this to me. I need you, buddy.’

The dog finally opens an eye and wags his tail once.

‘Thank you. Sorry. Sausages for dinner,’ Dan says, and Fitz wags his tail three times, which clearly means, ‘Yes, please.’

At work Dan is all over the place. He forgets the name of his client and calls her Clare Lacy instead of Lacy Clare. He drops his notes and lets silences go on for too long, because he is lost in his own world. Lacy interprets this to mean her answers are not good enough and repeats herself.

‘I said, it’s not fair. My mother-in-law undermines me every time she comes into the house and my husband refuses to see it. Now she wants to come to the birth!’ She wraps her hands round her belly as she says this. ‘I’ve tried telling Matt how I feel, but he just says I’m being paranoid and sensitive and I’m lucky to have his mum around. I’m not lucky at all. I lost my mum when I was twenty-one. If I can’t have her at the birth, I don’t want anyone, not even Matt.’

Dan nods and says it must be hard. He’s doing counselling for dummies because his mind is walking up Atticus’s steps and knocking on his door and, shit, is he holding flowers in his sweaty hands?

‘She checks to see if my plants have water. If they’re dry, she jokes about how she hopes I won’t forget to feed the baby. They’re cacti, Dan. They’re supposed to be dry.’ Dan nods again.

‘Not that she thinks I’m going to be able to feed the baby myself. She’s already told me I’ll be lucky to get anything out of my boobs.’ She moves her hands to her breasts as she says it, thrusting them towards Dan for inspection. Dan looks at them and thinks how much easier life would be if he found women arousing.