‘Ha! You should set up camp at the café with me,’ said Hugo, heading into the kitchen area and pulling out a large wooden board. After gathering ingredients from the fridge, he began chopping tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms, looking rather at home in the kitchen.

Evie brimmed at the invitation. ‘Liam seems, ah, dedicated,’ she said.

‘Yeah, he’s certain we’re going to hear back from some publishers soon. He’s just about the only one who seems to believe in me. Well, apart from you now.’

Evie blushed and immediately changed the subject. ‘Can I help?’ she asked.

Hugo shook his head and focused in on dicing the peppers, giving Evie the opportunity to compare him with the Hugo Hearst whose book she had so enjoyed and admired from afar. In person, he was as gorgeous as ever. His hair hung loosely over his forehead and was slightly longer than she had come to see it online. He wore blue jeans and a white linen shirt that showed off his broad shoulders. She trailed her eyes down his legs, noticing for the first time that his feet were bare.

They chatted about recent movies they’d seen, the subjects Evie was getting the most out of at film school, the precariousness of being an actor, how much Hugo enjoyed flexing his brain with writing his own content after years of auditioning and acting out other people’s work. Evie had never seen him so relaxed. In all the televised interviews she’d watched, he was always poised, beguiling—in ‘performance mode’, she now realised.

Hugo paused in his chopping, looking at Evie thoughtfully. ‘You know, it feels like I’ve known you forever. I can’t believe it hasn’t even been a week. It’s so nice talking to you,’ he said.

Evie’s heart performed a somersault.

Distracted by his candour, she felt something brush against her leg and jumped on her bar stool. Looking down, she saw a chocolate-brown cat with ominously yellow eyes staring up at her.

‘Everything okay?’ Hugo asked, concerned.

‘Your cat,’ Evie managed. ‘He gave me a fright.’

‘Bunny!’ said Hugo, coming around and picking up the cat. ‘Amazing creature, isn’t he? So majestic.’ He nuzzled against the cat’s head before placing him back on the ground and returning to the stove.

Evie nodded distractedly, hoping she’d packed her antihistamines. How could she have forgotten about Bunny?!

‘Are you sure everything’s good?’ said Hugo, sliding the vegetables into a saucepan.

‘Absolutely, I’m okay.’

Hugo put a pot of water on the stove to boil. ‘Just okay?’ he pressed.

‘I mean good.’

‘Please. I know the rules. Good means okay, okay means awful, awful means the end of the world.’

Evie chuckled. ‘You see right through me. Okay, my day was fine.’

‘Fine? It’s even worse than I thought!’ Hugo mock gasped, grating thin pieces of parmesan cheese into a bowl.

Evie laughed again.