‘He thinks that you might be interested in being more than friends,’ I mumbled. ‘I’ve told him that’s not the case.’

‘Ah. Okay.’ Sam’s voice was low. I huddled back in my chair, not sure whether to be hideously embarrassed, to shrug it off as a hilarious joke between friends or to hope that somehow, Ebenezer might end up being right.

Sam raised his eyebrows at me in invitation, holding out his hand as the music twined around us. I had to smile and shake my head when I realised that Ebenezer had put on ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran. When it got to the line about dancing in the dark, barefoot in the grass, the wine mingling with the attraction in my veins decided it would be rude not to.

How many opportunities did a woman have to dance under the stars with a stunningly handsome man? In my case, only one so far, and history would strongly imply that there wouldn’t be a second. I would be a fool to pass this up.

Sam placed one hand on the small of my back, his other hand clasping mine and pressed between our chests as we swayed, and, resting my head on his shoulder, feeling the smooth skin of his neck and the pulse that hammered beneath it, the evening was about as close to perfect as it gets.

When the song finished, Sam whispered, ‘Is he going to give us a round of applause, or hold up a mark out of ten?’ and we both started laughing, so that when he pulled back and fixed his gaze on mine, it caught me off guard.

Sam looked deadly serious as his eyes locked onto mine. This did not feel fun or light-hearted. My heart had never felt so full and heavy with emotions that were nothing to do with friendship.

His mouth twitched slightly as he dropped his gaze to my lips.

‘I would really like to kiss you,’ he whispered, voice hoarse.

I had to close my eyes to push beyond the building passion and find one last smithereen of reason.

This was Sam, my friend, and I really, really wanted him to kiss me.

But this was Sam. My friend. And I didn’t want to do something stupid in a moment of summer madness that would ruin our friendship forever.

If for one second I could think beyond this kiss, I could see what would follow. And every possible scenario ended with him having to tell me that he’d been honest from the start about what he wanted, and me walking away from our friendship with my emotions in tatters.

‘That’s… I can’t…’ I stammered back. ‘The No-Man Mandate…’