‘In Abu Dhabi,’ he whispered, as he set about slowly liberating me from my hotel uniform, ‘we won’t have to worry about all these layers.’

I breathlessly reminded him that it was the end of summer and a thin blouse and silk camisole hardly constituted layers, but he silenced me with a lingering kiss and had been smoothly answering any questions I had come up with about the move ever since. I couldn’t deny he had a knack for making it all sound straightforward and the beautiful images he showed me of the city were all picture perfect.

There could be no doubting his determination to make me fall in love with the place and his plans, but during the first couple of weeks after his surprise suggestion I did my best to follow Dolly’s advice. I even had a notebook listing the pros and cons and initially they were pretty evenly matched, but Jonathan’s excitement combined with the unusually wet autumn which morphed into a bitterly cold one, meant that by the time I’d worked my notice I was feeling every bit as keen to settle in a warmer clime as the swallows who had already taken flight. My mind was made up; I was going and Jonathan was thrilled.

‘Do you really have to go to this leaving thing tonight?’ he asked as he kindly filled my insulated cup with coffee on the morning of my last shift. ‘Only I was hoping you could cut and run. I thought we might crack open some champagne and have a little celebration of our own.’

‘It’s not a leaving thing,’ I reminded him. ‘Those of us getting the chop didn’t want one, remember? I’m just going for a meal with the rest of the Surplus to Requirements Gang. I won’t be late. We can have the champagne and celebrate when I get back.’

‘All right,’ he said, handing me the cup and pulling me in for a kiss, ‘and while we drink it, we can look through the photos again.’

We had been looking online at the places we’d most like to live; scrutinising the practical and fantasising about the completely out of our league super-rich options.

‘And tomorrow,’ I added, kissing him back, ‘I’m going to look at some jobs.’

Jonathan pulled away a little and I knew I’d taken the shine off his celebratory mood. This was a conversation we’d had before and even though it had the potential to turn into an argument I was determined not to back down.

‘I know you keep saying I should wait until we’re there,’ I quickly carried on, closing the gap between us again, ‘but I really need to have a proper idea of what’s going to be on offer for someone with my experience.’