She took a step closer and brought her knee up hard, aiming for his crotch. But he, seeing the intention in her stare, angled away just in time and she ended up kneeing him in the thigh instead.

‘So sorry!’ Rory hurriedly appeared between them, leading Thea away and calling back over his shoulder, ‘She’s deeply disturbed. Shouldn’t be unsupervised.’

‘She tried to knee me in the balls!’ the man shouted after them.

‘No, no, that was just … an uncontrollable leg twitch …’ Rory interjected before Thea could say anything.

He plonked her on a low wall. ‘What are you doing?’

‘He was a creep!’ she said, crossing her arms.

‘The world is full of them.’ Rory sighed. ‘Can’t knee them all in the balls.’

Thea watched the man shiver as he walked away, his shoulders beginning to hunch. He looked older and thinner than she’d thought, now that he was further away. It was easy to call him a creep, she found herself thinking, when in fact, he’d maybe just been another exhausted human being like her, trying, in his own ham-fisted way, to make a connection with someone, anyone, because it was cold and dark and wide-awake nights lasted a very long time.

‘Look, I’m sorry but we’ve just been told that this session will be called off for tonight.’ Rory looked down at his clipboard, a plastic ink stamp dangling from it on a piece of string: surprisingly low-tech for such a cutting-edge company. ‘Can’t really get any useful data after this. It’s a shame because this was the last round of tests before the trial begins. You were so close.’

And, to her complete surprise and shame, Thea felt hot tears forming. ‘You mean – that’s it?’

In that moment, she felt the weight of all the years she still had left – all those sleepless years – and that weight crushed her.

Rory considered her. There were little lines fanning out from his eyes and, Thea thought, he was probably one of those people who had a proper, hearty, throw-your-head-back laugh.

‘It’s – what? Around four in the morning,’ he said. ‘You’ve been awake the whole time. And you’ve lived like this for …’

… too long …

‘… pretty much all your adult life. Whoa …’ He exhaled.

Rory gazed at her thoughtfully. Thea imagined him in some sort of flat-share where they all got takeaways and lounged around on cushions on the floor. It was the kind of place where there were always dirty dishes in the sink and a permanent message on a chalkboard in the kitchen: ‘BUY MILK!!!!’

Thea never ran out of milk; she had her groceries delivered every week.

‘Look. I wouldn’t normally do this.’