To be honest, she wasn’t quite sure how she was going to explain – the emotions were still a little chaotic in her mind. But just the thought of getting in her car and at least trying, that lifted her spirits. Right, that was it. She wrote a Post-it Note and stuck it in the shop window about the later opening, got Alfie, his lead, and some water into the back of her car, and set off. Let’s do this thing, Em.

It was as she was approaching the outskirts of Newcastle that she realised a three-storey town house near to a converted chapel wasn’t that explicit. No address, no street name, and the suburb of Jesmond seemed to be quite big. Yes, she could always ring Max, but what if he was so fed up with her he didn’t answer, or worse still answered but then said he didn’t want to see her? How could she then just turn up? Better to keep the element of surprise – if she could find the right house, that was.

A church spire caught her eye; right, head in that direction. She knew Max’s vehicle and the church seemed to be at the far end of this road, so she’d be looking for some work vans, a skip, scaffolding? Nothing. No dark-grey jeep, either. And the church wasn’t converted, there was a board up about services and the like.

Fifteen minutes later she was still circling. Come on, Em, was there anything, any snippet of conversation that might help? He had said something about a coffee shop being nearby, too. Okay, so church/chapel, coffee shop, three-storey house. It was still pretty vague. She took a different turn and found herself on a street with a run of shops – hairdresser, gift shop, little café – but there must be lots of coffee shops in Jesmond, surely. Keep trying, turn left, turn right – she might as well throw a bloody dice, stupid woman. And then, a tall townhouse with scaffolding, several work vehicles parked outside, and a dark-grey jeep. Oh my, this was it!

She found a space to park a little further down the street. Taking a quick look in the rear-view mirror, she added a slick of lip gloss and ran her fingers through her hair to give it a bit more life, took a deep breath, then stepped out. Heading back to the house with the scaffolding, she passed a chap having a cigarette by one of the white vans, possibly one of Max’s team. She smiled at him.

Tall metal fencing panels stood across the driveway, one of them ajar. Inside she spotted a chap in a yellow Hi-Vis jacket checking the front of the house and making some notes on a clipboard. Emma was heading for the gap in the fencing, hoping to see Max somewhere. Hi-Vis guy turned. ‘Can I help you?’ he called across.