I still can’t understand how he managed to slip past them like that. I wipe a hand over my face and wait for the bus. When it comes I board it with Seb’s pass and find a seat at the back, wrapping my coat around me for comfort. Out of the window I see another bus draw alongside and momentarily I have the sensation of giddiness as our bus appears to slide into reverse. The narrow advertising strip on the side of the other bus pulls away with the bus. Ariel 3-in-1 pods. I shut my eyes against the memory but it invades anyway.

The day that I met him.

Grace wanted me to meet him. I think she thought it would make me feel better about him. It didn’t.

‘Ah, Xander, I’ve heard such a lot about you,’ he said to me when I walked into his yoga workshop. He sandwiched his hands around mine. They were warm and tanned. He was wearing white linen and floated about like a beatified ghost as I stood stiffly next to him in a black herringbone suit.

‘Ariel,’ I said, lifting my voice. I was there to give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘Mabel loves you,’ I said, my heart sinking immediately. ‘I mean the yoga.’

I switched my gaze to Grace and saw her cheeks flush.

‘Mabel?’ he said with a half-smile, looking at us both.

‘Oh,’ I say, irritated with myself. ‘Sorry – pet name.’

‘Pet name, eh? She’s an enigma, that one,’ he said smoothly then and stared into her eyes. A second too long.

I became conscious of my smile tightening. The air suspended around us and for a minute we all found ourselves looking at each other with fixed smiles.

‘So, Ariel. That’s an interesting name. Puts me in mind of—’ I said before he cut me off.

‘I know. I know. Ariel, the Lion of God,’ he said, dismissively waving his hands in the air. ‘I get that a lot but I prefer—’

‘Actually, I was going to say detergent,’ I said and then before he could answer, I stalked out of the hall. A second later Grace came marching behind me, whispering angrily at me.

‘Couldn’t you just for once—?’

‘What?’

‘Not be an idiot?’ Grace said, catching and then overtaking me on the street.

‘I came, didn’t I?’ I said, running behind her.

‘Well, if you were planning on sulking like this, you needn’t have bothered.’ She stopped in the road to hail a cab.