A few hours later, Tony and Jake emerged from the women’s apartment. Tony was still doing up the buttons on his shirt and stuffing his tie into his jacket pocket. He had a broad grin on his face as they walked away from the block of apartments.

‘It’s been a good night, don’t you think?’ Tony was smiling, and put his arm around Jake’s shoulders. The cool early morning breeze was a welcome relief from the stuffiness of the apartment. They were walking along the high street towards the taxi rank.

‘Not bad at all, and no, just for the record, I didn’t. She seemed pretty pissed off, but after I put the television on and sat down with a mug of coffee, she took the hint – although once she had given up on me, I saw her make her way into that noisy bedroom with you. I told you, Tony, I’m a one-man woman, and Sharon is the only woman for me.’

‘I know that, you idiot, I just wanted you there so they couldn’t help themselves to my wallet. Like I said, you’re my wingman, always will be. Come on, let’s go home and get some sleep.’

‘Antonias! Wake up, Antonias.’ Tony was fast asleep in bed and Rosanna was shaking him roughly. ‘Antonias, it’s late afternoon, will you wake up.’

Tony tried coming around, but he was bleary eyed. He could hear Rosanna shouting at him to wake up, and her rough shaking of his arm didn’t help. He looked up at her and tried hard to focus. The sun was peering through the windows and shining in his eyes. He held his hand up to block it.

‘What time is it?’ Tony was hungover and tired. What was all the panic?

‘It’s nearly five, you must get up. I’m going to wake Jake. Don’t go back to sleep.’ Rosanna ran across the landing, shouting Jake’s name, and looking backwards to see if Tony had got up yet.

Jake had heard the noise. He was sitting up on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands when she rapped on the door then hurried in.

After Tony and Jake had got back, in the early hours of the morning, they had drunk another couple of bottles of wine. Big mistake!

Jake held up his hand to stop Rosanna shouting. ‘I know, I heard, Rosanna, what’s the big panic?’ Jake tried to make sense of what she was saying, but she was speaking so fast and in Italian, he was having trouble.

‘It is Sharon, she is on the telephone. She said she will wait because she needs to speak to you now. It’s important; there has been some sort of trouble. She is waiting for you both.’

Once Jake heard Sharon’s name, he seemed to sober up. He looked up at Rosanna. ‘What’s wrong? Is she okay?’ He stood up; he was only wearing his boxer shorts, but went down to the telephone on the landing anyway.