Duke takes another big gulp from his glass. ‘My trainer would kill me for this,’ he says, nodding to the wine, but Evie can’t relate.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Evie says, then. She’s already had a large glass, so she’s loosened up. It’s easier to voice your opinion when you feel loose. ‘You said it was you who put it in my contract. That I had to be here. But I don’t think you ever said why.’

‘Why did I want you out here?’ He pauses, and Evie rolls her eyes at his dramatic delivery. He’s such an actor. ‘Because I really am a fan,’ he says. ‘I’ve honestly read everything you’ve written, and I even tried to get an advance copy of next year’s, but I got told they’re not ready yet.’

Evie pulls a face. It’s the equivalent of: yeah, okay, whatever. ‘My best friend isn’t even that eager,’ she tells him. ‘Not that she should be or anything. It’s not like I go and stand in the back of her classroom and applaud her teaching, so why should I expect her to read everything I write for work?’

‘Not the same thing,’ he says. She blinks. Duke narrows his eyes. ‘You still don’t believe me, do you? You don’t believe that I cried when Max and Sinita had to get on separate flights in Fly Me to the Moon. Or at Luther’s scene, where he finally confronts his dad so that he can lay his demons to rest and move on with Rochelle in Hope and Ghosts? I cried for like, an hour after that one. It was cathartic. Not to mention George, in On the Romantic Road. Why do you think this movie even got made, Evie? I read the book and made it happen. I took this to Stu at Independent, got Marnie involved; I attached my name early so we could get funding. Me.’

Like a goddamn sweeping saviour, Evie thinks, darkly. But then, her jaw slackens. He seems genuine. She goes to speak, but then finds she doesn’t actually know what she wants to say. She settles on: ‘I didn’t know that. I don’t know how this all works.’

‘You do understand that you’re brilliant, though, don’t you?’ he asks her. She shakes her head. Brilliant? No. Brilliant is a bit strong. Competent. She’s competent.

‘I’m not Shakespeare,’ she says. ‘I have a committed group of readers who like my style, and I try to tell the emotional truth of things, even if I do fudge a happy ending. But it’s just stories. Just words.’

‘Words that help people,’ Duke says. ‘Surely they must tell you that, at book signings?’