‘Hey – are you Duke’s mom?’ Evie says, approaching a neat-looking woman in a sleek wool coat and surprisingly youthful black leather boots. The woman looks up.

‘I am, yes,’ she says, and then she laughs. ‘Although it’s always so strange to hear him called that. We called him Ricky growing up. Derrick – after my father-in-law.’

Evie smiles. The woman seems nervous. Anxious.

‘He told me that not many people know that,’ Evie tells her, and she sees the woman mentally calculate if she’s just made a faux pas. Evie drops to a stage whisper. ‘But I knew …’ she adds, and the woman looks relieved. ‘I didn’t know it was after his grandfather, though. Just that Duke is a stage name.’

‘I suppose it must help,’ Duke’s mother ponders. ‘Being one person on stage and another in real life.’

‘It’s a good job Duke knows the difference.’ Evie smiles. ‘I’d imagine it’s very hard for actors to remember.’

His mother looks at her, then, with slightly narrowed eyes. ‘Yes,’ she says, and then holds out a hand. ‘Anna,’ she says. ‘Sorry, I should have introduced myself properly.’

‘Evie,’ Evie says, holding out a hand too. ‘We met, actually, just briefly.’

‘At the restaurant that night.’ Anna nods. ‘Yes. I thought your face was familiar.’

Evie waits for the penny to drop.

‘Were you the girl in the photographs with him? Sorry – are you Derrick’s girlfriend?’

Evie starts walking, motioning for Anna to come with her.

‘No, no,’ she says. ‘Didn’t he tell you? It’s all for the cameras.’

‘He didn’t mention,’ Anna says. ‘No.’

‘Well …’ Evie replies. ‘We’ve become friends, at least. I actually wrote the book the movie is based on. They’re doing a great job with the adaptation. Did you know Duke is doing some directing now too?’

They arrive to the main area where the activity is taking place, and Evie notices Anna’s eyes widen. It’s a full crew today, a hundred people dashing about purposefully in bobble hats and battery-heated gilets, cameras and tracks and lights and boom mics everywhere. It strikes Evie how quickly this has become normal for her again: a film set. Seeing Anna marvel so openly reminds her how lucky she is, how totally crazy it is that this is her life. Magda is right: most people would give an arm and a leg to bear witness to something like this.

‘I’ve never visited him at work before,’ Anna says, and Evie can see there’s a tear in her eye. ‘Look at him.’ Anna points to where Duke and Daphne are walking through their scene, Duke listening intently as Daphne explains something. He shouts over to the cameraperson, and the three of them start hashing something out. Anna and Evie are far enough away that their staring isn’t a distraction – they’re just another couple of people on set.