‘This is bad. This is really fucking bad,’ he intoned. ‘Who is this person? What do they want?’

He had tried calling the number, but the phone was switched off.

‘I hate this. Not knowing,’ he went on. ‘Feeling like there’s someone watching us.’

Even now, he was glancing in the rear-view mirror, his eyes darting around the car park, scanning the benches that punctuated the pavement outside the Sports Centre. The odd student drifted past, a white Campus Services van cruising slowly by, and each movement stirred up Ross’s nerves, fixing his jumpy gaze on every moving vehicle or pedestrian.

She put her hand on his thigh to calm him, but he hardly seemed to notice.

‘What are we supposed to do?’ he demanded. ‘Just hang around and wait for the next message? Are we going to be blackmailed or something? Christ!’

‘Calm down,’ she urged. ‘Let’s not panic.’ Although her own thoughts prickled with nerves.

She would talk to Corinne when she got home. Find a way to make it stop.

‘Yeah, well, that’s easy for you to say. It’s not you that could lose your family, is it?’

Her hand was still on his thigh and she snatched it away now.

‘You think I’ve got nothing to lose?’ The words came out in a low snarl, heat gathering in her chest. ‘You think I haven’t sacrificed anything for us to be together? I’m supposed to be in the lab right now, instead of sitting out here with you getting grief for something I haven’t even done!’

They sat for a moment in their own wounded silences. Eva fingered the frayed edges of the satchel that lay on her lap. She was struck by the thought that this wasn’t worth it. The endless piling up of work – an insurmountable obstacle. She had fallen so far behind, catching up seemed impossible. Maybe she should just drop out.

Gathering herself, she calmly suggested that they should wait and see. ‘It’s probably nothing. Just someone playing a stupid prank.’

He put his hands to his face and exhaled slowly. ‘Yeah, maybe. God, I hope you’re right,’ the tension in him beginning to ease.

‘Trust me,’ she said, ‘it will turn out to be nothing – a hoax – and then you’ll wonder why you were so anxious.’

He took his hands away and offered her a look of apology. His face was still drawn and blotchy with nerves, but he was calmer now and she was ready to forgive him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he offered. ‘For speaking to you like that.’

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ she smiled, affection for him stirring inside her again, but when she leaned over to kiss him, he turned his face away.

‘Don’t,’ he told her, a warning there.

‘Why not?’

‘Someone could be watching.’