I have successfully lifted the mood and it floats upwards, taking us with it, to the atrium skylight in this place, where a big round yellow moon sits in its frame and laughs at us all. A double-decker bus thunders along the Strand, rattling the technicolour glass that divides us from it. A red prism descends on Salvi’s face like a butterfly, then passes. He is grinning at my wit and my deflection, his eyes lit bright and kaleidoscopic; we are both relieved this moment has passed.

We eat. We talk and we drink and we laugh and we order more cocktails and more food arrives and we eat and we talk and I see a possibility, for us. For something to be happening here. I feel he won’t run out on me again. I feel we have a spark between us, a pilot light that could inflame into sometime bigger and all-encompassing any second. I also definitely feel drunk.

‘Shall we?’

A band is setting up on the small stage in front of the end wall with the lit-up panels. A guitar is being tuned, there’s a sizzle from the drum kit, a squeak from the microphone – a spark created elsewhere; not just us. They launch into an enthusiastic ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’.

I nod.

He leads me through the chattering tables and on to the dancefloor, where we are the first there. He starts dancing and I, shy but drunk, begin to sway from side to side. He is laughing at me, but not unkindly. His hand is still in mine, warm and nice.

‘OK?’

‘OK.’

We dance, while laughing at each other, awkwardly at first and then we start to really get into it and we are twirling and doing what we think are all the Latin moves and I haven’t laughed like this for a long time. Ricky Martin segues into Prince – ‘I Would Die 4 U’ – and the hem of my dress is flippy and I like the way it feels as it flips. I am all bum and boobs and hips, but I don’t care. I am cool girl in cool bar, dancing with cool guy. All those boys from a hundred years ago who didn’t want me and would shout about the fact they didn’t, to a laughing audience? They are gone. All those girls who thanked their lucky stars they didn’t look like me and never hid their relief? They have slunk away. I am dancing with Salvi in the West End on a Thursday night and it feels utterly fantastic. What do they say? Just go with it. I’m five cocktails in and I’m beginning to believe I can.