‘Humour me. Let’s say we met at a bar and I came over and said, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”’

I lifted my chin so he could see my disgust. ‘I’d say “Piss off, you American wanker”. Surely you’ve got better chat than that?’

‘Not a fan of the classics,’ he laughed, cocking his head back. ‘What if I said, “Hi, I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I’d like to buy you a drink”?’

‘Points for being direct,’ I accepted grudgingly. ‘But I’d probably just think you were leathered and once again, suggest you knob off. I know there are women who like strangers telling them they’re beautiful but I’m not one of them.’

‘Captivating, then.’

I shook my head. ‘Captivating sounds like a perfume you can only buy in a gift set from Poundland.’

‘You do not know how to take a compliment, do you?’ he said, spinning me around so quickly that I barely felt my feet leave the floor.

‘Once again, I am from Yorkshire,’ I reminded him as I caught my breath. ‘I know that might not mean anything to you, but the self-deprecation is real.’

‘I think captivating is the perfect word for someone I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ever since I first laid eyes on her. Even if she did try to kill me.’

‘You were assaulted by a cat,’ I reminded him. ‘Which is really embarrassing when you think about it.’

Evan chuckled and pulled me back in as I pressed my face against the hollow of his neck, breathing him in.

‘If we did meet in a bar,’ I said, swaying dreamily from side to side. ‘And I didn’t tell you to piss off, what would happen next?’

‘I’d ask if I could buy you a drink, which you would probably decline at first,’ he replied. ‘But your friends would encourage you because I’m so charming, and eventually you’d accept.’

‘And then?’

‘And then we’d talk for a while and I’d ask you to dance.’

‘And I’d say yes, although mostly out of pity,’ I said, my ears prickling as the song faded out and into another. ‘But it would have to be going fairly well for me to agree to dance with you.’

‘Oh yeah, things going pretty well at this point,’ he agreed, pulling me even closer. ‘Plus, I think we’re both kind of drunk in this reality, and that really helps.’

‘What happens after I agree to dance?’ I asked as I realized I was keeping time with the beat of his heart instead of the music.

‘We’d still be on the dancefloor, even though all our friends had left,’ he said, barely moving at all. ‘Because it felt so right having you in my arms, I didn’t want to let you go.’