‘But would you have shown quite so much dedication to duty if I’d been eighty, with no hair and false teeth?’

‘No. But if you’d been eighty, with no hair and false teeth, would you have said you’d come if I went to bed with you?’ She paused. ‘No, don’t answer, I don’t want to hear it.’

He was chuckling now. ‘You’re quite right. I’ve been in training to be a dirty old man since I was seventeen.’

‘I thought you were in training to be a writer when you were seventeen.’

‘The two activities go together.’

Lying supine was making her prone to giggling. ‘I don’t want to hear that. I’m a serious student of literature. I am a big fan of your work, and I was very drunk. And I’m also a virgin – I thought—’

All desire to giggle left her. Why had she said that? Why had she let the words escape? Her train of thought was perfectly logical: she’d been going to tell him that she thought she would like him to have her virginity because of who he was, how he wrote. But that wasn’t the sort of thing you told people, unless they were very close friends, like Monica.

He didn’t speak for some seconds. ‘Oh. So when you agreed to go to bed with me, it would have been your first time?’

‘Uh-huh.’

He laughed gently. ‘No wonder you ran away.’

‘I said, I was very drunk, and I wouldn’t have run away if I hadn’t fallen asleep.’

‘So what was so frightening? The sight of me snoring my head off or the thought that you might have given your virginity to a wild Irish writer?’

Although she wanted to be entirely truthful, she didn’t then tell him that there was no one else in the world she’d rather give her virginity to. His tone was teasing and she wasn’t sure if it was just a game – albeit a very pleasant one – to him or not. She would keep her answers as light as possible. ‘The realisation that I’d been so drunk I didn’t know if we’d made love or not. I was appalled at myself.’

‘But not at me?’

‘No. You’re a man. You’d made a casual suggestion; you didn’t expect me to take you up on it. Did you?’

He paused for a long time. ‘As we’re being totally honest with each other, I’ll tell you: I don’t get turned down all that often.’

She put her hand over her eyes, although he wasn’t looking at her. ‘Oh God! Now I feel like I’m in a long line—’

‘If it’s any consolation to you, I don’t ask anything like as often as I used to. I’m quietening right down. And I always use a condom, you can tell Monica.’