‘Work is good but pretty mental. They’ve pulled in a new piece of land further out …’

I busied myself with finishing dinner preparations, as he continued, ‘But I’ve said I don’t want to be the ground guy on this one …’ There wasn’t exactly much to do, though I made a show of pretending there was for the sake of not sitting opposite him. Which is a great sign, Edi, as you well know … I grabbed cutlery, then even more dishes to have ready for the apple pie, assuming we got that far.

‘Do you need a hand?’

‘Are we going to talk about the other night?’ I belched the words out like involuntary gas and my hand flew to my mouth with an apt embarrassment. Everything in me wanted to apologise – as though to say, Whoops, sorry, don’t know where that came from – but I swallowed the words back down, and followed them with a large swill of wine. Rowan still hadn’t answered by the time I set my glass down, though. ‘We don’t have to, I just—’

‘You think we should.’

‘I’m surprised you don’t want to, Row, if I’m honest.’ A timer dinged in the background and I wondered how inappropriate it would be to turn around and check the casserole. Are we even having dinner now? He rubbed at the back of his neck and looked behind me to where the noise had come from. ‘It’s just the plates having warmed through, that’s all. It’s nothing that can’t wait.’

‘I mean, I am hungry.’

Something truly uncomfortable passed between us in the seconds after that. We locked eyes and it felt like he was challenging me – but to what? Whatever it was, I didn’t rise to it. I only shrugged and, with a murmur of agreement, I turned around and started to scoop one, two, three ladles of casserole onto the warmed plates from the oven. I dropped four bread rolls into a bowl, too, and carried those first – with my wine – to the table; when a room is on fire, only grab the most important things, and I definitely had mine. I flashed him a tight smile before I turned back to get the dinners.

While there was no danger of further eye contact I said, ‘I just think there’s probably some questi—’

‘So you’re gay, bi, whatever. Is that where this is going?’