I said, ‘Are you sure? I mean, you don’t usually.’

‘Your mother said to bring Ellie home. She didn’t say to drop her off,’ Dad said.

‘Maybe you should ask the taxi driver to wait,’ I said. ‘You don’t want to be hanging round outside waiting for another one. It looks like it’s going to rain.’

‘Ava, stop fussing,’ Dad said. ‘I promise you, this is going to be fine. Your mother will be perfectly happy to invite me in, under the circumstances. After all, she’s happy with somebody else now, isn’t she? So what has she got to be bitter about?’

No way. That’s just what you want to think. You’re kidding yourself.

I didn’t say it – how could I? I thought he probably had it wrong. But maybe, just maybe, I was the one who had got it wrong. Maybe Mum would want to see him. Who knew?

It was beginning to spit with rain as we went up the steps to our building and the taxi driver drove off. The door to the downstairs lobby opened and there was Mark, arms folded, looking like he wasn’t about to put up with any nonsense.

Mark said, ‘Hello, Sean. I’m afraid Jenny really doesn’t want you coming in.’

I didn’t often wish that Dad was different: I’d resigned myself long ago to him being the way he was. But just then a huge wave of longing rose up in me for that other version of Dad, the might-have-been sober version. He would have been terrific. Unbeatable. Mark would never have had a look-in.

As it was, Dad swayed as he attempted to square up to Mark. He was slightly taller, an advantage taken away by the fact that he was standing on a lower step. He looked Mark up and down, and all of a sudden the fight seemed to ebb out of him.

‘Mark. I suppose I ought to say welcome back.’

Mark stared at Dad and a muscle worked away somewhere in his jaw: I’d never seen someone’s face do that unless it was on TV. Then he turned to me and Ellie and said, ‘You two should go inside.’

‘Dad was thinking he could come up,’ I said.

‘Then he’s got another think coming. Ava, take Ellie up.’

‘Don’t tell me what to do.’

He didn’t like that. Not one bit. ‘Your mother’s been worried. You should go and speak to her. Put her mind at rest.’

Mark stepped aside to let Ellie through and she went past him into the hallway. I reluctantly followed, and Mark shifted so that he was blocking the entrance again.

‘Go home, Sean,’ Mark said. ‘And when you’ve sobered up, here’s something to think about. If you can’t behave yourself when you see the girls, you’re not going to see them at all.’

‘You don’t get to decide that,’ Dad said.

‘No,’ Mark said. ‘Jenny decides. And I will respect her decision. As should you.’

‘You go,’ I told Ellie, and ushered her up the stairs to the flat.