I found the ‘for the time being’ a bit disconcerting. I managed to take it on the chin, but the mere idea that he could think that one day he might love someone more than me had wounded my broken little heart – and my strong ego. Then I remembered that, when I was his age, I couldn’t have foreseen that he would come along and I’d love him more than anyone else, so I swallowed my pride and moved on. I had initially thought I’d be ticking the box alone, since I was not going to be able to spend my ‘wild day’ in Tokyo with ‘the person I love more than anyone else in the world’ – in other words, Louis. On second thoughts, it was bending the rules of the game. Louis had stipulated that the challenges had to be experienced by two people – that was what he meant. But, apart from Louis, there was no one I really loved . . . Sad, I know, but that’s the way things were. The next person on my list of potential people I loved was my mother, I had to admit it.

There, lying in that vast bed, closer to her than I had been since I was fourteen, I became aware of the emptiness of that ‘list of people I love’. I wasn’t antisocial, I had lots of acquaintances with whom I enjoyed a good night out, but I didn’t really have any friends. Love and friendship required an effort which I’d given up on a long time ago, when I left Louis’s father, before he knew he was going to be a father. Since the accident, I could count on the fingers of one hand the people who’d tried to get in touch to find out how I was. I hadn’t called them back. I’d got lots of friends on Facebook, lots of real-life men and women mates, but no true friends. I hadn’t been unhappy about it; it was my choice. My priorities had always been clear: raise my son and have a successful career.

My Aunt Odile never had children, much to her regret. My only family, right now, were Louis and my mother. I sat up in bed. We’d left the curtains open and the white light of the city bathed the room in a ghostly glow. I watched my mother sleeping. She seemed peaceful. Her face less stern than when she was awake. I found her beautiful. An unconventional beauty – angular, obstinate. I lay back down and continued to look at her. I told myself that ultimately Louis would no doubt be delighted if I spent this wished-for ‘wild day’ with his grandmother.