After a while, a blacked-out SUV appears, and Sage skips along to it, accompanied by Yuri. We get in, the photographers still clustering around us, and the driver manoeuvres away.

‘Oh my God.’ I sink back into the leather seat.

‘You should hire security,’ says Sage again. ‘You’re not a civilian any more.’

This is unreal. I’m not a civilian any more! I’m one of them!

Sage is flipping through channels on the in-car TV, and she pauses as her own face comes into view, with the headline, Sage speaks out.

‘Hey! Check it out!’ She cracks open a Diet Coke, offers one to me and turns up the volume.

‘I feel personally betrayed by Lois,’ the on-screen Sage is saying. ‘I feel she’s let me down, not just as a fellow actor but as a woman and as a human being. If she has problems, then I feel for her, but she should deal with those in an appropriate manner, not inflict them on others. You know, we were once friends. But never again. She’s let down the entire profession.’

‘That’s a bit harsh,’ I say uncomfortably.

‘She stole my purse,’ says Sage, unmoved. ‘She’s a psycho.’

‘She didn’t steal it. It was a mistake.’

‘Tough talk there from Sage Seymour,’ a TV presenter is saying on-screen. ‘With us in the studio to discuss the scandal is Hollywood commentator Ross Halcomb, film critic Joanne Seldana, and …’

‘Sage,’ I try again. ‘You do know it was a mistake, don’t you?’

‘Sssh!’ says Sage, waving a hand impatiently. We sit in silence as a whole bunch of people in a studio discuss whether Sage Seymour’s career will now go stellar, and then as soon as they’ve finished, Sage flicks to another news piece about herself. I feel more and more uncomfortable, but Sage won’t let me speak. The TV airways seem to be filled with coverage of her, on every channel – until she clicks on to a new channel and Lois’s face suddenly appears.

‘Lois!’ Sage leans forward animatedly.

The camera pans away and I see that Lois is being filmed outside her house, which is a huge, Spanish-style mansion. She’s wearing a billowy white nightshirt and has bare feet, and seems to be shouting at someone, but there’s no sound.

‘What is she doing?’ Sage is gazing at the screen.

‘Why isn’t she inside?’ I wince. ‘She doesn’t look well.’

Lois looks terrible. I mean, terrible. Her skin is pale, her eyes are hollow, her hair is lank and she’s twisting it between her fingers.

I wonder if she’s heard from the police. No one knows if they’re going to press charges; no one knows anything yet. I keep expecting to be summoned to a police station, but so far, nothing. When I mentioned it to Aran, he said, ‘Becky, don’t worry. Your profile is up there, even without a court case.’

But that’s not what I meant. I was thinking about Lois.

‘Leave me alone.’ Her voice suddenly becomes audible. ‘Please leave me alone.’