‘What do you think of him?’ Nicole asks.

‘I guess he’s okay,’ I say.

‘Have you fucked him?’ Estelle asks Nicole straight out.

It’s Nicole’s turn to choke on her drink. ‘God, no,’ she exclaims, laughing. ‘No!’

‘He’s not that bad,’ I say defensively.

Max gives me a look, which I ignore.

‘I had a thing with one of his friends,’ she informs us. ‘This German surgeon who worked here last year.’

I feel such intense waves of relief washing over me I almost have to lie down.

‘I had to organise all the paperwork to approve him to come to the hospital,’ she explains, ‘so by the time I finally met him we’d been emailing each other so much I felt like I actually knew the guy.’

‘And then one thing led to another …’ Max offers helpfully.

As it transpires, Nicole and the mysterious Dr Wolfgang Dietrich engaged in a torrid affair. Apparently, Wild Wolfgang is Dr Prince’s best friend and they operated together nearly every day when he lived in Sydney.

‘Jack had us over for dinner,’ she says, using Dr Prince’s first name casually. ‘It was just me and Wolfgang and Jack and his wife. Like, I thought things were pretty serious between us.’

I feel my stomach lurch at the mention of Mrs Prince, who I have tried to pretend may not exist. ‘But?’ I can’t help asking.

‘It turned out Wolfgang had a girlfriend back in Sweden. He’d been working on a research paper over there, I think. He left Germany to take some prestigious academic job and also got himself a hot Swedish theatre nurse, as I discovered.’ Nicole rolls her eyes. ‘Anyway, she came to Sydney to visit for a month and I suddenly stopped hearing from him.’

‘Do you reckon Dr Prince knew?’ I ask her.

‘I don’t know,’ she says, frowning. ‘Wolfgang might have just pretended we were over and that he’d got back together with his ex-girlfriend. Who knows?’

‘Men,’ Max says, rolling his eyes.

‘Then, when his girlfriend left, he started calling me all the time,’ Nicole continues. ‘He was saying he loved me and all the rest of it, but then he went back to Sweden and I never heard from him again, so he’s probably back with her.’

We all nod in sympathy.

‘So it’s weird seeing Jack now … but I think he still likes me. In fact,’ she says, looking conspiratorial, ‘I think he’s a bit attracted to me, actually.’

It dawns on me that I need to start wearing tighter dresses. And brushing my hair more than twice a week.

‘You know he owns an art gallery,’ she says. ‘He has this huge collection of Greek antiquities. They’re so rare they get exhibited at museums all over the world.’

I feel my mouth start to drop open, and push my fist underneath it quickly.