‘Oh my god, you really are in love,’ I laughed happily. ‘Yes to skating. It’ll be lovely, you’ll hold hands, very romantic.’

‘What if she falls over and breaks her leg?’ he asked, face crumpling with concern.

‘You’ll take her to the hospital and have a great story to tell the grandkids.’

‘Christ,’ he sighed. ‘Is this how it is? All the time?’

I smiled at my friend through the screen. ‘Is what how it is?’

‘This,’ he rolled onto his back and held the phone over his face. ‘I’m desperate to see her, can’t stop thinking about her, can’t stop talking about her. And so far I’ve gone through my entire wardrobe five times and can’t find a single thing to wear tonight.’

‘And the worst part is that feeling that it could all go to shit any second,’ I agreed. ‘Like, oh my god, don’t let me say the wrong thing and fuck this up. One minute you’re high as a kite and the next you’re ready to chuck yourself under a bus.’

‘Thanks for the heads up,’ Adrian replied, his voice weighted with sarcasm. ‘I haven’t got to that part yet.’

I cleared my throat and put on a strangled smile.

‘Maybe you’ll be lucky and that’s just a girl thing,’ I suggested. ‘You don’t run through conversations after you hang out and worry about what you said?’

‘Can confirm, I do not,’ he said. ‘Perhaps that’s just a Ros thing.’

‘I’d better go,’ I said, suddenly desperate to get off the phone. ‘I’ve got to call a load of children and ask their mums if they can come and play on my podcast.’

‘Sweet,’ Adrian said as I heard a keyboard clacking in the background. ‘Is it too much if I send her flowers at work today? It’s too much, isn’t it?’

‘Send them tomorrow,’ I instructed gently. ‘You’re already seeing her tonight. Flowers in the morning will be a nice surprise.’

‘See her tonight, send flowers tomorrow,’ he repeated, closing his laptop. ‘Thanks, mate. I’m so glad you’re back. Sumi would have laughed in my face.’

‘And I didn’t?’ I replied, waving goodbye.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

At seven o’clock on the dot, I walked into Good Luck Bar to meet Sumi for dinner, only there was no Sumi waiting for me. Instead, I found a smiling John waving from the bar and beckoning me over to an empty high stool right in front of him.

Shrugging my arms out of my backpack straps, I trotted over to the only space left, straightening the sleeves of my T-shirt and giving myself a surreptitious sniff as I went.

‘Evening,’ John said, placing a large wine glass in front of me and filling it with Sauvignon Blanc.