Just then, her phone went. If it was her mother or Callum, she thought as she took the phone out of her handbag, she would press ‘silent’. Lately she had been pressing ‘silent’ on most of Callum’s calls. Realising this now made Tamsin feel guilty, and the guilt made her even more irritated and unwilling to talk to whoever it was who was calling her.

It was Chris.

Tamsin hadn’t seen Chris in over a month, not since just before Leah had dumped him. Callum had been out for a commiserative drink with him after the split, but had come back early, saying that Chris’s friend Doug had been hideously drunk, and that Chris himself wasn’t much better. Tamsin took this as evidence that the break-up had been hard on Chris.

‘Tamsin? Tamsin, hi, it’s Chris here, Chris Kimura.’

‘I know that,’ Tamsin giggled, her bad mood immediately lifting. ‘I can see who’s ringing.’

‘I tried Callum first, but I just get this dead tone—’

‘No, no, that’s right, he’s got a new number. I can give it to you.’

‘Actually, it doesn’t matter who I talk to really – I was hoping to see you both – the thing is, I’m leaving for Afghan in a week.’

‘Wow, that’s – how do you—’

‘Fantastic,’ Chris cut in. ‘I feel fantastic. I know I shouldn’t say this, but I can’t fucking wait. It’s like, we’ve been building up to it for so long. The bureaucracy. Three times now I think the date’s been pushed back. I was starting to feel Kafkaesque.’

‘What-a-what-esque?’

‘Kafka, sorry, German, well Czech really—’

‘Oh, him, right, with you.’

Tamsin found she was grinning. With Callum, it had got to the point where the poor guy couldn’t even mention Roald Dahl without the literary reference feeling pretentious and unnecessary. When Chris did the same thing, she didn’t mind. Fleetingly she noted the unfairness of this.

‘So, the thing is, I’m actually on my way up to London,’ Chris was saying. ‘My parents are flying in this evening, I’m going to have supper with them – but I wondered – you and Callum – I really wanted to see you guys before I go, say a proper goodbye and all that.’

‘Why don’t we all meet at Callum’s?’ Tamsin suggested. ‘He teaches on Saturday mornings but he should be on his way back by now.’

There was a short silence. ‘Actually, ah – do you mind if – I mean, the thing is, do you know if Leah’s—’

‘No, no, I totally understand,’ said Tamsin. ‘Let’s use my place instead. I’ll call Cal. See you in, say, an hour or so? I’ll text you the address.’