‘Lis’,’ she said. ‘Is everything okay, at home I mean, you and Matty?’

‘Yes, of course,’ I said, ‘why do you ask?’

‘I don’t know, it’s just, you seem a bit jumpy, you know? You used to be really relaxed with me and now you just seem a bit twitchy and on edge all the time.’

‘Not at all …’ I said, smiling. ‘No, it’s just work is really hectic and Matty’s job is really hectic too. He’s working all hours, works through his lunch break most days, then still has patients to see long after the clinic should have closed and he can’t turn someone away when they’ve been waiting all afternoon for their appointment, you know how it is.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ she said, and her voice still sounded a little on the dry side. ‘Jasmine says. She says Matthew’s an amazing doctor, everyone at the hospital adores him. He’ll be a consultant really soon.’

I wanted to say, why are you bringing Jasmine’s name into the conversation? Why don’t you just say what you have to say?

‘In fact,’ she continued, looking down at her half-drunk latte, ‘Jasmine is really quite awestruck, as you would be, I suppose, you know, when it’s someone senior to you, few years older. It’s quite, you know, status-driven, isn’t it, in that place? Not that different from a teacher–pupil relationship, in some ways. I mean …’ She drew breath. ‘It’s not illegal or anything, I’m not saying that, but …’

I looked at her.

‘But?’ I said, coolly.

‘But,’ Rosie said, taking a deep breath but returning my look. ‘It wouldn’t really be on for someone to take advantage of that, would it?’

I rose to my feet. I loved Rosaria, we had been friends for years. I needed to leave immediately. I needed to leave before I said, how fucking dare you? Your little sister fancies my boyfriend and he needs warning off? I saw the way she looked at him at my birthday, all that hair-tossing, and what, she throws herself at him and when he behaves in precisely the way he’s been invited to behave it’s all his fault?

I did not want to say these things so I said lightly, ‘Yes, well, I hear Jasmine texts him quite a lot, asking him career advice and all that, all the time apparently. Needy and immature is how he describes her. Did she tell you she rang him on a Saturday night when he was out having dinner with me, or did she not mention that bit?’

Rosie bristled at the imputation that it might be her little sister behaving inappropriately. ‘I think you might find it’s the other way around.’