‘Anything else?’

‘I get this tingling in my hands and feet. Turns out that’s a symptom – I just thought I had poor circulation. My balance, coordination, spatial judgement… they’re all off, and I actually fell in front of my colleagues a few weeks back when my foot malfunctioned. That was pretty humiliating.’

‘Oh, Lex, you never said.’ Sasha looks gutted for me.

‘Didn’t seem much point.’ I shrug. ‘Wasn’t like you could do anything to change it.’

‘Maybe not, but this is what I’m talking about. It’s not just about you being physically capable, you also need emotional support. Sharing that with me at the time might have helped you process how you felt about it.’

‘I suppose.’ I know she’s right because I gave myself a bit of a hard time in the days following that incident, but I’m not going to offer that up too willingly. ‘So that’s mainly it. There are moments when I struggle with my concentration, but I generally have a clearer head. It’s not like the “cog-fog” I experienced before. That’s a positive thing because that made it very hard to concentrate at work.’

‘That’s great. So what support do you need? How do I get you to be a bit kinder to yourself? How do we have fun together without going overboard? Or, on the flip side, how do I make sure I don’t become the “fun police”? And what about alcohol? Do you drink? Not drink? If you don’t, should I not either? Or will that annoy you?’

‘Whoa! Slow down,’ I tease her in an attempt to hide the fact that I’m now the one feeling overwhelmed.

‘All valid questions though, right?’

‘Yeah, they’re valid, but can we tackle them one at a time?’

An hour later, we’ve chatted it all through and agreed a plan for the weekend. It includes regular coffee stops, some downtime before going out in the evenings, and Sasha being allowed to say if she thinks I’m looking tired – but if I say I’m not, she’s not allowed to keep asking. We also agree that I’ll stick to my two-drink limit and Sasha will behave as she normally would – though I draw the line at having to carry her home.

It doesn’t quite produce the plan for managing my life I’d hoped for, but it provides some good starting blocks, and I can treat this weekend as a bit of an experiment. I’ll certainly be testing my limits just with Sasha being here, and all the things we’re planning to do together.

Chapter 16

The next morning, after breakfast, we get showered and dressed and take a taxi to the Jewellery Quarter.

‘I can’t wait to see this.’ Sasha’s face is one of an excited toddler as she hops out of the cab on Vyse Street and makes a beeline for the first shop window she sees. ‘Look, Lex, their stuff is gorgeous.’

I join her and we gaze longingly at the stunning array of diamonds winking back at us.