‘Well, it always used to be round at my sister’s place. She knows how to throw a party or a get-together. Now she’s gone, my social life has taken a bit of a nose dive. I mean, I go out after work with friends from the office but… well, it’s not quite the same without Mina. I miss her, I guess. God, she would love it here. She’d be in her element. Although I think she might drive your mum mad as she does like to experiment and doesn’t stick to a recipe.’ She glanced around the room. ‘You have a good eye. Especially for a bloke.’

‘Sexist!’

‘Well, it’s cosy. Not quite feminine but it’s not all leather and taupe.’ She pointed to the sage-green painted cupboards and the pale linen-grey sofa with printed cushions in naïve Scandinavian designs of pale yellow and the same sage green, as well as the cashmere throw tossed over the back. On the floor were a couple of tall jugs with elegant looped handles filled with dried reeds, and a set of striking prints hung on the wall featuring sea birds, picked out with bold black slashes and elements of colour in the background.

‘I spent a lot of time in hotels and rented accommodation feeling homesick. One thing I always want to do is make sure that people feel at home. I can’t bear those stark places where everything is nailed down because they’re worried people are going to steal it. I want people to have those little creature comforts that they would have in their own place.’

Hannah wrinkled her nose. ‘I need to take a leaf out of your book. My place isn’t very homely.’

‘Maybe it’s not home.’

‘Of course it’s home.’

‘Always so pragmatic. You don’t have much romance in your soul.’

‘You’re the second person who’s said that to me recently. My mother had plenty of romance and it didn’t get her very far. Or rather, it took her too far.’

Conor didn’t say anything and for a moment it was as if the tables from the other night had been reversed. ‘My mother and father died when I was a toddler. They were adrenaline junkies – skiing, white-water rafting, you name it. They would leave us with my aunt and uncle for the weekend while they went off for an adventure. One weekend they didn’t come back.’

‘That’s… rough.’