‘I don’t know what to say,’ he continues. He slides a palm up his cheek, and it rasps on the stubble. ‘He seems like a nice guy. Maybe he thought that if I ever did anything with my life, he would have that social currency. That’s why people like him have charity auctions and charity galas, right?’

‘So you see yourself as a charity case?’

‘Well, I am, aren’t I? What else would you be doing here tonight?’

‘You’re not charity, Cormac.’

‘Why are you here, then?’

‘I don’t know,’ I say, honestly. When I was younger I was much more reckless. I’d always find myself in situations like this, with that feeling that something was immoral, more worried about being caught than doing wrong, and yet I was doing it anyway.

‘It doesn’t matter now. He’s pulled the plug.’

‘So he called you?’

‘I actually called him.’

‘Wait – you said he told you he was no longer funding the sessions.’

‘That’s right,’ he says, with a guilty smile. ‘I think he stopped paying because I called him.’

‘Oh, Cormac, what did you say?’

‘I just wanted to know when they would take me back at the university. I’d been seeing you and trying hard and he wouldn’t give me an answer. We got into a bit of an argument and I may have said some things about him that I didn’t mean.’

‘Did you think about me when you did this? Did you think about the work we’ve been doing?’

I almost miss it, but briefly there’s a note of sadness, of regret in his eyes. Then it’s gone. That charming veneer is back. He forces a smile to his lips. ‘He just started calling me ungrateful, you know.’

‘Cormac, this is what I was talking about. This streak you have of self-sabotaging. You called him for the same reason you wrote other students’ papers: you don’t think you deserve to be in his class, and you didn’t think you deserved his money so you act out to hurt yourself. I think you called him to start that argument.’

He swirls the glass, raises it and breathes in the smell before taking a mouthful. ‘I’m worthless – they know it, I know it; the only person in this world who thinks otherwise is you.’

‘What about your sister? What about your girlfriend? What about everyone at the university who knows how brilliant you are?’

I take a sip of my wine as I wait for his answer. He heaves out a sigh. ‘The girlfriend is gone. She still texts and bothers me, but it wasn’t working out.’

‘That’s another thing you’ve just set about to destroy isn’t it? Another relationship.’ I stare deep into his eyes. ‘Will that be awkward at work?’

He gives a small laugh. ‘Awkward is right. That’s why I quit.’