You’ve told me how you felt the first time you saw me. How you were drawn to me, magnetically. Well, when you looked over at me and kept looking, it was this shiny new version of me that you were seeing.

I remember your expression. How you looked a little dazzled. And when you demanded to be introduced, it didn’t surprise me as it might have. Of course you would like this new Louise. She was so much fun.

Drunk Louise somehow knew what she was doing when she looked at you archly and asked if you were anyone important.

I loved how you laughed. And even more how you said, ‘I’m the second most important person in this room.’

‘Come on, at least third,’ I told you. ‘Me, April … you can be third.’ It wasn’t the kind of thing I’d ever said to anyone. But that new me somehow knew that she could.

‘I can deal with third,’ you told me, which made me feel a rush of warmth towards you. It only got better when we bantered on for a bit and then you asked, ‘Shall we do some shit dancing?’

You weren’t lying. It really was awful. I remember shaking my head at you in mock disappointment, while I couldn’t stop grinning.

In the middle of it I was summoned to perform. I hadn’t told either of you that Hannah had asked me to play a harp piece at the reception. I could tell that it added something to your liking for me, the fact that I was a musician, too.

I was getting on for being very drunk as I settled myself on the hard chair and started to flow into the Bach. But, as I have come to know since then, there’s a sweet spot that you hit, with alcohol. Where it loosens you up and makes you feel like you’re part of your instrument. When you get out of the way, and something else takes over. Someone else. Her.

And there was that other feeling, too. Of the way your eyes were on me during every touch of every string. I felt beautiful just then. Genuinely beautiful.

When you’d gone to the bar later on, April told me all about you and Dina. About how she’d lasted two months of marriage with you before deciding on an upgrade. April pointed out glamorous, hard-looking Dina and her new man to me. She did it too loudly, though, so that Dina looked over, and I cringed. But of course April didn’t care. She just called, ‘Hey, Dina! Looking great!’ and then steered us both away.