‘Ah ha!’ said Dermot – cruelly, in Laura’s opinion.

Laura pushed aside some innocent bystanders in order to get nearer to Dermot and Monica. ‘I needed to know if we had sex last night or not,’ she said breathlessly, grateful that Monica had insisted on a hair of the dog and that she’d consumed at least some whiskey.

Dermot’s smile was devastating. ‘And you couldn’t have just asked me?’

Laura swallowed and shook her head. ‘Too embarrassed,’ she explained. ‘I felt I should have known.’

‘If you didn’t know,’ said Dermot softly, ‘the fault would have been mine, not yours. But you fell asleep and then you disappeared, obviously thinking better of it. I’m trying not to feel hurt,’ he teased.

‘It wasn’t really that—’

‘I’m going to find Charles and some music,’ said Monica, relieved that she’d done her duty. ‘You two can sort yourselves out now.’ She wriggled through the crowd with Laura looking plaintively after her.

‘That woman is a piece of work,’ said Dermot admiringly.

‘She’s a good friend,’ said Laura. ‘She put herself through hell for me. Or at least a lot of embarrassment.’

Dermot was not impressed. ‘Quite unnecessary. She, or you, could just have asked.’

Laura lost some of her numbness and began to giggle. ‘How would that conversation have gone, I wonder. I could have said, “Excuse me, Mr Flynn, can you just remind me, did we or did we not have sex last night?”’

‘You would have used my Christian name. I wouldn’t have thought you forward. After all, I have seen you naked.’

Laura tried to take a sip from her glass but found it was empty. The thought of him seeing her naked, of being naked in his presence was intensely erotic and excruciatingly embarrassing at the same time.

‘You need another drink,’ said Dermot and lifted his hand. ‘Whiskey for the lady.’

Magically a glass appeared. When she’d taken a good gulp and feeling she’d been through the worst embarrassment a woman could experience and survive, she said, ‘So, will you come to my literary festival?’

Dermot’s smile made Laura’s stomach turn with desire but her brain told she was probably not going like what he had to say. ‘All original terms and conditions apply.’

Helplessly, Laura looked up into his eyes. They were smiling, but resolute. She looked away again quickly, spent some moments biting her lip and generally trying to make the floor open up and swallow her. When she finally accepted that it wasn’t going to she said, ‘Oh well. No one could accuse me of not doing my best.’ She had agreed to his terms once, while very drunk, but with sobriety had come sanity, and she was not going to let herself do anything quite so foolish now. She turned, preparing to fight her way through the people to find Monica.

She felt a hand on her arm.