Now, riding up in the lift to their flat, he wondered why he’d chosen not to announce his arrival from downstairs. He closed his eyes for a second. He couldn’t say why. A naturally suspicious mind, maybe. Well, now it sounded like it was justified. Standing on the landing outside the door to their flat, he could hear the giggles even before he opened the door. Luke silently inserted his key into the lock, eased open the door and strode into the living room.

‘Babes – you’re back!’ Elise sprang up from the sofa and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him as he dumped his bag on the carpet and squeezed her tight. After the squalor of that Eastern European police cell and the processed fug of a four-hour flight this girl just smelt so good. So good, in fact, that for a moment he forgot about everything else and began nudging them both towards the bedroom. And that was the moment when the spell was broken.

A figure appeared from the kitchen, framed in the doorway, two full glasses of wine in his hands. A figure that was all too familiar to Luke. A short, stocky figure with a thick monobrow, a pink Swiss cotton shirt monogrammed with his initials, ‘HSS’, and double-cuffed sleeves fastened with a pair of personalized gold cufflinks.

‘Oh, sorry,’ Elise said breezily, disentangling herself from Luke. ‘I should have mentioned. Hugo’s come over. We were just watching Love Island, The Sequel.’

Hugo. Bastard. St. John. Squires. His perpetually tedious nemesis. How was it that this irritatingly successful finance type kept turning up at Elise’s side every time Luke was away on a mission?

The buzzer went from downstairs.

‘That will be Deliveroo,’ she said cheerfully. ‘We’ve ordered Thai.’ She buzzed the deliveryman in, telling him to come up in the lift, and waited by the front door for him, leaving Luke and Hugo facing each other awkwardly.

‘Hugo.’ Luke held out his hand and gave him a particularly forceful handshake, gripping him for perhaps a little longer than was necessary as he looked him in the eyes. Elise held open the front door, tipping the driver as he handed over the warm bags of food, and then returned, placing them on the dining table and lifting out their contents. ‘Luke, I hope you’ll join us. Huge – can you fetch another place setting?’

‘Huge’? ‘Hope you’ll join us’? What the hell was this? Luke made no attempt to hide the scowl on his face as he stood there, taking this in. This was all sounding way too familiar for his liking.

‘I thought you were engaged?’ he said to Hugo. ‘To someone else,’ he added icily, as they sat down and Elise divvied up the dinner for two between the three of them. ‘Did that not work out?’

He caught Hugo throwing a knowing glance at Elise.