I glanced at my phone, redundant on my carpet. I’d set it to silent after I rang Debbie. Ignoring the notifications of texts and missed calls.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Oh, Eve.’

I cried into her shoulder as she held my hand. She asked nothing of me and for that I was grateful. I fell asleep and woke up with my head in her lap as she gently stroked my hair. I sat up, wiping sleep from my eyes.

‘Have you taken the day off work?’ I asked.

‘Called in sick.’ Her eyes wide, a guilty grin.

I smiled. Jane always made me feel better.

‘I’m sorry about the London Eye.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll do it another time. You’re safe, that’s all I care about.’

I told Jane some of what happened, snippets I could bear to talk about, as she looked on, disgusted at what I was telling her. Pausing to shake her head and pat my hand.

‘Let me make you some tea,’ I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. Jane had been here hours and had had nothing to eat or drink.

‘I’ll make it!’ Jane overtook me on the way to the kitchen.

She stayed until late, cooking dinner with what she found at the back of the freezer.

‘You need to go shopping, or rather Ben does.’ She laughed at her plate of chips, peas and fish fingers. I pushed mine around my plate as she tucked in. We talked about anything other than my attack, and she tried to keep me distracted, but I was relieved when she left to go home. I loved her, and was grateful for her visit, but I was desperate to be alone.

The next few days blurred into one. I spent my time sleeping, smoking, staring at the television and occasionally leaving my room to eat. Ben knocked on the door a few times to make sure I was still alive, offering me tea, cigarettes and on one occasion another joint, all of which were gratefully received.

We’d been flatmates for around two years. When I first had the flat, I coped on my own for a while, working full-time and supplementing my salary with bar work at the weekends. Then I had to renew my mortgage, the excellent rate I’d secured at first had gone up and so did my monthly repayments. I got a lodger, a girl called Vicky, but it was a mistake from the outset. I worked in the bar with her and everyone always came back to ours after closing time. It became a place for partying and there was always someone lying comatose on the living-room floor. One Sunday morning I woke up to find one of the customers she’d brought back fast asleep at the end of my bed and the rest of the flat wrecked.