‘I did, yeah. It was a little, uh, realistic for me.’

‘How so?’

‘Well, they’re married. They have kids. They fight a lot.’

‘Oh. Well, that fits in with your picture of marriage perfectly then.’ I took a sip of my drink, punctuating my annoyance. How could one person be an idealistic romantic one moment and such a cynic the next?

‘I still liked it. I wanted to know what those characters had been up to. They’re almost like old friends to me, or something. I mean I saw the first one when I was around sixteen – right before the second one came out.’ God, he was young compared to me. ‘So, I saw those pretty much back to back, and then I watched them a few more times over the years.’

‘Oh really? So, I’m not the only one who’s seen them over and over again?’

‘Busted.’ He laughed at himself. ‘Anyway, when the third one came out, I sent out invites to watch the trilogy with my friends.’

‘Oh, cool.’

‘No, not cool, because literally no one showed up.’

‘What? That’s horrible. My bestie, Lindsey, and I went to the cinema to watch the trilogy – those movies are practically a rite of passage for – for us.’ I nearly said, ‘for my generation,’ but caught myself in time.

‘It’s fine. I enjoyed it for the most part – it’s just that, like I said, the third one got a little depressing in the middle. That whole “familiarity breeds contempt” thing. It was kind of intense.’

I sat quietly and sipped my drink because I couldn’t think of anything to say. If Josh was right and we were like Jessie and Celine, we’d gone from romantic figures to a couple on the brink of divorce in a matter of minutes. What sort of trajectory was that for a first date?

I was going to need a third sidecar.

I am pretty sure Josh picked up on my uneasiness, because he started to back-pedal. ‘I mean, they do seem to really love each other – despite all the fighting – and it’s a fictitious marriage anyway,’ he said. It was an anaemic point, but it seemed that there were no hidden messages in Josh’s words. He probably just enjoyed the movies, and he liked that we’d met by accident too. But like a total girl, I looked for hidden meaning that wasn’t there. Idiot.

I did love those movies, though, the first one most of all. I set my empty glass on the table in front of us.