‘About a month. I… er… I got a job in a restaurant. This geezer… well it’s a long story but basically I ended up cooking. I quite like it. He decided to send me here. Fu— knows why.’ He looked over at Adrienne whose lips twitched ever so slightly. He dug his hand in his pocket and held up a euro and waved it at her. ‘Anyway, here I am, might as well give it a go. Not like I’ve got anything else to do.’ Adrienne gave a regal nod and moved on to Meredith.

Jason glanced down at Hannah’s pie. ‘Why are you here?’ To be fair, he made an effort not to laugh, pressing his lips together.

Hannah sighed. ‘I’m not very good at cooking.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

‘Thanks, Jason.’

‘Sorry, just joking. It looks edible.’

‘That’s about all you can say.’ She sighed. ‘I came because I wanted to learn to cook properly.’

‘What do you mean properly?’ Jason drew his brows together, intrigued.

‘You know in those cookery programmes when they use words like braise, broil, sauté, dauphinois, bain marie, or they talk about a shoulder of meat or a knuckle, I just want to know what it all is.’

Now he stared at her. ‘Why?’

That was a good question but Hannah shrugged, almost too embarrassed to admit the real reason. She wasn’t about to admit that she didn’t like not being good at something so basic, especially when Jason clearly had some kind of natural talent. It went a bit deeper than that. She knew she was good at her job; everyone at work knew her as dynamic and brilliant and that had kept her going until the arrival of Sadie Burns-Coutts at work. Blonde, beautiful, a first from Oxford, and a brilliant cook. There was just something about her that brought Hannah’s deeply buried insecurities to the surface. Sadie was posh, had a plum-in-the-mouth voice, dressed like a model, and had flair, style, and charisma. Hannah knew that intellectually she was Sadie’s equal, but Sadie was immediately super popular, a bit like Mina had always been. Hannah had friends, but it took her longer to make them; she liked to be sure of them before she committed. If she was honest she had always been a little envious of Mina’s ability to make friends so easily and bring them all together.