She’s already put the money in my account.

And it is a beautiful dress, even though it isn’t quite me.

It turns out the ‘work function’ is actually a really weird, super niche awards ceremony hosted by a comedian who used to appear on televised panel shows. According to Peter, the company he works for bought a whole table but only his team were obliged to go, and funnily enough they were finding it hard to fill the other seats, meaning everyone in his team – including the intense speed dater, Al – has been obliged to bring a plus one.

I’m so intrigued about Al’s plus one that I almost forget how extremely awkward I feel about the whole thing. Almost. But now is not the time to let Dream Peter back into my head, especially not as I can now see Real Peter.

He looks a little nervous this evening. Handsome, too, in a dark-grey suit.

I reach out to him. ‘Hey.’ I give him a quick hug. ‘You OK?’

‘Yes, I’m good. Are you good?’

‘Yes, I’m really good.’ I try to use a calming voice because he really does look nervous. It’s an odd role reversal. I hope he is OK. We haven’t quite let go of each other yet.

‘Bea, you are beautiful.’

I turn pink and finally let go of him. I squirm a bit.

I’m particularly bad at receiving compliments in normal life, let alone at a fancy do where I feel like a total imposter in my new dress, my new shoes and my favourite underwear.

‘You too. You couldn’t scrub up well even if you tried.’ That came out wrong. He’s frowning at me now. ‘I mean, you don’t need to scrub up because you always look good.’

I hope I recovered that well enough. He really does look good.

This is not helping me keep Dream Peter at bay.

‘Well, thank you for coming. Having you here will make the whole evening much more fun.’

‘Of course. I told you I owed you one.’

‘Quite, but I actually had fun at the fair. I worry that tonight will be full of highly awkward conversations. You’ve met Al –’ I nod – ‘so you know how odd he is. But he’s actually one of the more normal ones amongst us.’

He holds out his arm for me to link with and we walk into the room.

‘I’m excited to meet your work friends.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes!’ We walk on a little further. ‘But I’m more excited about the free food.’ I feel Peter relax a bit beside me.

Much to my dismay, when we reached the table we realized that we weren’t sitting next to each other. Instead, my name had been placed next to Peter’s boss on one side and Al’s date, a surprisingly normal girl called Beth who works for a charity, on the other. And thanks to the seating arrangements, with Peter’s seat being directly opposite me, all night long I’ve been forced to look at another person’s plus one fawn over him. She made him laugh once, and I had to suppress a pang of jealousy.