‘Oh yes,’ she breathes, feeling his hardness against her jeans and how she’s already melting. ‘Yes, yes. Oh God, yes.’

Maddy wakes up in her bed, a smile on her lips. There’s a weak morning light coming through the shutters. She stretches, feeling the novelty of her nakedness between the sheets. She feels centred in a way that she hasn’t done for a very, very long time.

As if sensing that she’s awake, Matteo stirs next to her. He opens his eyes and smiles.

‘Buenos dias,’ she says, remembering how she drunkenly practised her Spanish on him last night.

She must look a complete state. She didn’t ever get round to taking off her tear-streaked make-up from yesterday, but he’s seen her at her most raw and she realises she doesn’t care. The sex had been amazing – far too frantic and fast the first time, but then they’d had a bottle of wine and he’d made her lie on her bed and insisted on massaging her, his hands stroking away the stress and the heartbreak. It had been amazing. Then they’d had deep, slow sex, kissing and talking and exploring.

‘Impossible, but you’re even prettier in the morning,’ he says.

She feels a girlish thrill at his compliment. Nobody has called her pretty for a long time. Stylish maybe, and before she came to Brighton and before lockdown when her standards were much, much higher, certainly ‘put together’. But this compliment feels more natural. Like he’s describing her in her raw state. Not her make-up, or her hairstyle or her clothes. None of the things that she normally throws money and time at. And it’s this – this acknowledgement of how she is right now – that feels almost more intimate than the sex they’ve shared.

She feels him stirring against her and a wave of desire comes over her as she leans in to kiss him. How had she forgotten how wonderful kissing is? How spectacular sex makes her feel? It’s like she didn’t realise she was thirsty until she had a drink and now she feels insatiable.

Suddenly, there’s a yapping and Luna jumps on the bed, surprising them both.

‘Oh! Luna. Hey you.’

Luna nuzzles in, breaking them apart. ‘OK, OK,’ Matteo says, stretching. ‘This is my cue to get up. I should go and shower before my meeting.’

She watches him admiring his olive skin and pert bum. He’s in good shape and she likes the dark curly hair on his legs and chest. He’s manly in a way that Trent never really was with all his preening and waxing.

‘But this is to be continued. I will see you later,’ he says.

When he’s gone, Maddy contemplates the cardboard boxes. She’s spent her entire life rushing to re-cycle all the cardboard boxes that things arrive in, but now she has a wall of the bloody things. There’s no way she can even start to unload all her stuff when there’s nowhere to put anything.