‘That’s not a problem,’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s go. I have another surprise for you. One I really hope you’re going to say yes to.’

‘Tell me now,’ she said, as he slipped his hand through hers and steered her towards his BMW, which he had left parked on double yellow lines.

‘No,’ he said, ‘you have to wait.’

He opened the passenger door for her, then closed it gently once she was safely inside. He was like that; the perfect gentleman. It was also his discreet way of making sure she didn’t slam the door shut as she was prone to do. She never meant to do it, but then there were plenty of things she never meant to do, and she still did them. Like nearly setting her friends’ house on fire the other evening. Or not remembering that Rick didn’t drink tea or have milk in his coffee. It was unfortunate that he took it as a personal slight, but as she told him, she was hopeless with trivial details like that.

He had laughed when she’d admitted to having a sieve for a brain, that she could never remember a date, never mind a telephone number. Numbers just happened to be his ‘thing’, he’d said, and after she’d owned up to having got her finances into a bit of a pickle (a euphemism for being overdrawn), he had offered to go through her credit card and bank statements with her. He had been an enormous help, finding standing orders and direct debits she had forgotten to cancel, some of them from ages ago. She had been so grateful to him, but had also felt a bit silly for not spotting these things herself.

She had a modest trust of money Dad had left her in his will, Martha too, but until she was thirty-five, she could only access the interest, which had been their father’s way of ensuring she didn’t immediately fritter away the money. Presumably he’d hoped by the time she was thirty-five she would have become the responsible adult he wanted her to be. A responsible adult like Rick, she thought with a smile.

Rick worked in financial services and was an IT Operations Manager. She didn’t have a clue what that really meant, but he seemed to enjoy it. He wore a suit Monday to Friday and seemed to earn a terrific amount of money. Dad would have approved of him. She sensed that Mum and Martha were quietly relieved that finally she had found somebody sensible to date, somebody steady with some security and with a proper future. Somebody who would be able to take care of her.

That’s what Dad had once said. ‘Martha will always be able to take care of herself, but Willow needs someone to look out for her.’

She had overheard him saying this to Mum and Mum had said, ‘I think you’ll find it’s the other way around, all Willow needs is somebody for her to look after.’