“It’s always troubled me how I treated you before. But now I feel like I’ve been given a second chance to put things right,” she says. “After all, whatever happened between our mothers, once upon a time they were best friends. And you were best friends with Alice, so maybe…maybe there’s a chance that we could be friends, too.”

Her phone rings then and I’m glad of the distraction as she checks who it is and gestures “sorry” at me while she takes the call. It’s all been getting a bit intense and I’m glad of the time to gather my thoughts.

“Sorry about that,” she says, when she finishes the brief conversation. “I wouldn’t normally have answered it, but it was June from the surgery and since I’ve just asked her the most humongous favor, I could hardly ignore her.”

She gathers up her things and reaches for her jacket. “I’m going to have to go, I’m afraid. June’s kindly offered me her sofa to crash on so I said I’d pop round and discuss it with her.”

“Where are you living now, then?”

“In a flat in Woolwich, but the lease ends at the end of the month and the landlord won’t extend it. He wants to renovate the house.” She puts on her jacket. “About time, if you ask me. Tight bastard’ll probably turn the living room into another bedroom and hike the rent up as soon as he’s done.”

She drains her cup of coffee. “It’s fine, though. I’ve found a nice new place in Deptford. The only trouble is, the current tenant can’t move out until two weeks after I need to move in.” She smiles. “So it looks like I’ll be sleeping with Madame Bovary and the Queen of Sheba.”

I give her a questioning look.

“June’s Persian Blues,” she explains, laughing. “I’m going to be picking cat hairs off me for weeks.”

“Two weeks is a long time to have to sleep on a sofa,” I say.

She grimaces. “It’s even longer if you’re allergic to cats.” Then, when she sees my face she says, “I’ll be fine. As long as I remember to pick up some antihistamines.”