‘So what made you want to go into your specific line of work?’ Luke asks her and, at this point, I know I’ve lost him for the afternoon. Lena loves nothing more than to talk about herself and her work. I don’t doubt the good that she does, but I do wonder sometimes whether she gets off on the glory of it, just a little bit. With a sigh, I add milk to the coffees and hand them round before settling in the armchair opposite an enraptured Luke.

‘I’m all done,’ Dave announces after a while. ‘It was sand, mainly. You might want to shake your clothes out a bit more carefully next time you come back from saving the world.’ If he’s being sarcastic, it’s completely lost on Lena, who thanks him profusely and insists on sending him away with one of Mike’s chocolate brownies. Luke also seems to take this as his cue to leave, getting to his feet.

‘Oh,’ Lena says to him disappointedly. ‘I hope I didn’t bore you.’

‘Not at all,’ he tells her. ‘It’s just I have to get back for my mum. The carers finish soon and she can’t be left on her own.’

‘Mm-hm. Carers are such a Western concept, don’t you think? In most cultures, families stick together, helping each other out as and when. It’s a much better model, in my book.’

‘Yes, well, I’m an only child so there isn’t anyone else,’ he tells her ruefully.

‘I’m sure you’re doing your best. It was nice to meet you, Luke, and I hope to see you again soon.’

‘You too.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I murmur to him as I escort him downstairs. All the passion of earlier has dissipated and I just feel a bit numb. ‘I genuinely didn’t know she was going to be here.’

‘It’s fine,’ he tells me, leaning in to give me a chaste peck on the cheek. ‘I liked her. Hopefully there will be other times.’

‘There had better be,’ I tell him as I turn his head to kiss him on the lips, reawakening the merest hint of libido. ‘I have unfinished business with you.’

I watch him walk down the street for a while, before turning and trudging back upstairs. When I get into the flat, Lena hasn’t moved, not even to tidy away the coffee cups, and I feel a twinge of annoyance as I pick them up and start loading them into the dishwasher.

‘Well, he’s quite the charmer, isn’t he?’ she declares suddenly, piercing the slightly tense silence. ‘I’m not sure about him though. You need to tread carefully there, Tilly.’

‘Why do you say that, Lena?’ I ask, although she’s annoyed me enough this afternoon that I have no interest in her opinion.