‘I love my friends – I do – and I’m not really a person who has a lot of friends – just a few close ones. But at my age, all my friends are either married or married with kids, and as much as I love them, it’s not really the same between us anymore.’

‘No one to hang out with.’

‘Exactly. And how selfish is that? I mean, I want my girlfriends to be happy – and I think most of them are – but what I want for me is someone to go to the movies with, or go to dinner with on a Tuesday, or drink a bottle of wine with. I am so tired of drinking cask wine, which is the only kind I buy anymore, because it doesn’t go off if you drink it one glass at a time.’

‘You need new friends,’ he said, matter-of-factly. I looked at him to see if he was joking. He was.

‘That’s what I mean about sounding ungrateful. I don’t need new friends. I need to find a way to stop complaining and be grateful that, if I really needed them, I could call any one of them at three in the morning and they would be there for me.

‘Instead, I bemoan that I’m in a job that does my head in, I’m single – even though I really do think most men should fuck off and die – present company excluded, of course – and I am pretty much one floral bedspread and another cat away from becoming the quintessential spinster schoolteacher.’

‘Wow, you really are messed up.’ I could tell he was teasing me, but I was on a roll.

‘Right? That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. On paper, what do I have to complain about? I mean nothing, right? Yet, the truth is, I’m stuck.’ I paused, because what I was about to say really hit home, and my voice caught.

‘And I am really, really lonely.’ Wow, Sarah. You sure know how to impress a guy.

Josh didn’t say anything for a moment, so of course, I apologised for my big reveal. ‘Josh, I’m sorry, I—’ And then he touched his hand to my chin and turned it towards him and kissed me, gently at first and then with more fervour. It was a different kind of kiss than the flirty one from the night before. I leaned against him as he wrapped his arms around me, and I realised I was seriously falling for him. Then – damn him – he pulled me closer and kissed me more deeply.

Finally, we pulled apart and when we looked at each other there was no awkwardness – real or imagined – and there was no pretence, just honesty and affection.

‘Sarah, I think you’re incredible.’

‘I don’t feel very incredible.’