‘Things change,’ John replied simply, wrapping long, strong fingers around his glass. ‘Just be grateful you’re not going to wake up on the night bus with someone drooling on your shoulder at three o’clock tomorrow morning.’

‘But when did they change?’ I wondered aloud. ‘One minute, things were one way and now they’re another. It feels as though it all happened at once. Lucy’s pregnant, Sumi’s asleep at the table and Adrian is going to CrossFit on a Sunday morning. Was there a meeting? Did I miss a memo?’

He grabbed a wedge of lime from a plate in the middle of the table and squeezed it into his drink, mixing it with a tiny metal straw. His hands were massive, I noticed. Long fingers, short nails, a strong forearm resting on the table and just a hint of an equally impressive bicep hidden by the sleeve of his grey T-shirt.

‘I just wish everything was the same as it used to be,’ I said, closing my eyes on it all.

‘I’ve got to say,’ John tapped the metal straw against the rim of his glass. ‘You’re not at all how I’d imagined you to be.’

I opened my eyes and looked at him across the table.

‘When were you imagining me to be anything?’

As his face broke out into a smile that still turned down at the edges, I noticed a dimple in his left cheek that I hadn’t seen before. Probably because I hadn’t seen him smile all that much.

‘I was curious,’ he replied. ‘They would talk about you all the time, Sumi and the others. It’s only natural to wonder.’

Leaning my elbows on the long table, I considered him with more interest. It was a strange feeling, to find out there had been a complete stranger walking around, forming an opinion about you without your having any say in the matter.

‘What is it about me that isn’t what you expected?’

‘I don’t know,’ John said slowly, his brown eyes lightly scanning my face. ‘They all talked you up so much.’

‘And the real-life me is nothing but a disappointment?’ I asked with a deprecating laugh he didn’t return. Instead he raised his glass to his lips and held it there for a moment before taking a sip.

‘Not in the slightest.’

I felt a flush in my cheeks that had nothing to do with the amount of tequila in my drink. Well, maybe a little bit to do with the amount of tequila in my drink.

‘I’m very good at reading people,’ he said, holding my eyes with a steady gaze. ‘But I can’t read you at all. It’s like trying to do a crossword puzzle, only the clues I’ve been given aren’t quite right.’