He started treading down the heels of his trainers, still clinging to the doorframe to keep him upright.

‘And it’s in London.’

‘Why would the interview be in London?’ he asked, looking perplexed.

‘Because the job is in London?’ I replied with a weak smile. ‘But it’s just five days, I’d be back on Tuesday, and the money is amazing and—’

His confusion shifted into something sour.

‘Why are you chasing another assistant job? I thought we’d decided you were going to apply for the teacher training at Hallam?’

‘I don’t think we have decided that yet,’ I said. ‘And anyway, that wouldn’t be until next September – you can’t just start a teacher training course when you feel like it.’

‘Yeah, but our Mandy’s said she’d get you in at her school to help out for a bit,’ he replied. ‘Get some experience under your belt.’

All of a sudden, all those cartoons where steam comes out of the character’s ears started to make sense.

‘And why would Mandy do that?’ I asked. My voice was dangerously calm but Stew was too drunk or too disinterested to pick up on the signs. ‘I haven’t talked to Mandy about teaching. I haven’t talked to anyone about teaching, because I don’t want to be a teacher.’

‘Fran, I’m knackered, I can’t talk about this now.’ He kicked his shoes close to their spot under the stairs and turned back into the hallway. ‘We’ll talk about it in the morning.’

‘But I have to leave in the morning,’ I said, following him into the hall as he trudged up the stairs. ‘First thing, we won’t have time to talk.’

‘I’m going to have a shower, I feel like shite,’ he called back down. ‘Talk to me after.’

I returned to the living room, folded my blanket, and put the remote back beside the TV before my eyes wandered over to the framed photos that hung above the settee. They had been here longer than we had. Each and every picture was a Stew Bingham original, specially chosen for his biggest fan, Nana Beryl. It broke my heart that he barely touched his camera these days, but I’d long since learned there was no point trying to convince Stew to do anything he didn’t really want to do, and he’d been quite clear about hanging up his camera.