Tony and Stanley were the male polar opposites that drew my wavering compass needle, after I left Ted behind. Once Stanley had gone I was trying to make up to Lola and Jack for the dismantling of their family and there hadn’t been much time or space left over for lovers. I had had plenty of good friends instead.

But I still felt twenty-seven under the skin, whatever the external evidence might suggest to the contrary. It wasn’t too late.

When I reached home I wasn’t ready to go straight inside. I strolled up our street past the area steps and lit basement windows to the Tesco Metro near the tube station. As Jack was going to be away I hadn’t bothered with the weekend shopping and there was no food in the house. I bought chicken and some cheese and salad, then walked a little way along the high street. There was a noisy, turbulent atmosphere of Friday night festivity, with City boys in shirtsleeves outside bars and barelegged girls lurching along the kerb. Crawling buses belched out fumes and the air stank of diesel and frying onions. In an hour or so, at closing time, all this would probaby turn ugly. I peeled away from the crowds and made my way back home through the quiet side streets.

Once I was inside I didn’t cook even the simple meal I had planned. I shoved the food haphazardly into the fridge and turned to the telephone instead. Caz and Graham were in the new house and I planned to go over in the morning to help with some unpacking. Mel and Jasper had gone to Paris for a long weekend and Lola was with Sam. The world seemed as crowded with couples as the Ark.

Without giving myself time to think further I opened my purse and extracted the folded piece of paper with Mr Rainbird’s telephone number written on it.

‘Hello. It’s Sadie Thompson here,’ I said when he answered.

‘Yes, I recognise your voice.’

I rested my forehead on my free hand, wondering what I thought I was doing. ‘How are you?’

‘Very well, thank you. I’m just doing some marking.’ We listened to the distance between us and tried to work out what to say next. It was a long time since I’d done anything like this and I was relieved when he took the initiative. ‘I was wondering if you would like to see a film or have dinner with me?’

‘Yes, I would, thank you. Maybe both? We could go to the cinema and have dinner afterwards, perhaps?’ This is right, this is how it goes.

‘Are you by any chance free tomorrow evening?’

‘Well, yes,’ I said. ‘As it happens, I am free.’

‘I’ll come and pick you up. Would about six suit you?’ He spoke quickly, as if I might change my mind otherwise.

I gave him my address.