‘Sorry,’ Evie says, clearly noticing his visceral response. ‘Should I not have brought her up?’

‘No, it’s okay,’ says Duke. ‘I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she just showed up, but I get it. She felt like there was no other way. She didn’t even have my phone number anymore. It says a lot that she went to all of this effort.’

‘I think so too,’ Evie says. ‘I know I was harsh about addicts and the black hole they can pull you into, but that’s easier to say in theory, when the person you’re talking about is a hypothetical. When I met your mom, I was kind of struck by how normal she seems? And how proud of you she is. I felt like I wanted to give her a hug to stop her bursting from pride when she was there yesterday. That must feel nice.’

‘Yeah,’ Duke says, and it’s nice to feel understood by Evie. His instinct was right. She really does ‘get it’. He doesn’t know what ‘it’ is, but she’s there. She speaks his language. ‘And she has my phone number now, so she can call or text instead of randomly showing up next time. We’ve said we’ll start with FaceTiming once a month and take it from there.’

‘The privilege of your phone number!’ Evie teases him, and he’s glad she’s brought this up. ‘Imagine such an embarrassment of riches!’

He laughs. ‘Well,’ he tells her. ‘I was thinking that we should finally exchange numbers? It was cute at first, but now I think it’s silly.’

‘Nahhh,’ says Evie, and he thinks she’s kidding, at first. It takes a few beats for the air between them to sour, just the tiniest bit, and Duke needs to clarify what, exactly, is happening.

‘You’re not serious,’ he says, moving to look at her. She looks around the room – everywhere except at him – like she’s trying to decide what words to use next.

Finally she says: ‘Well, yeah, I am, actually.’

‘I don’t get it.’

She swallows, takes a breath, then looks at him. The way she does it makes his stomach drop.

‘I just think having your number would mean I would want to use your number.’

‘That’s the general idea, yes,’ Duke responds.

‘And I don’t want to be, like, pathetically waiting by the phone.’

‘Well, you won’t,’ he says. ‘I will call. And hopefully see you. I mean, I assumed …’

What did he assume? That she felt how he felt? That she was falling too? That beyond here, in Germany, for the movie, they would spend some time together, hang out, see where it went …?

‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun,’ she says. ‘Getting to know you and everything. It’s been really cool.’

‘Past tense,’ Duke says.

‘What?’