‘Do you mean off this wall, or in general?’

He rolls his eyes. I’ve never seen him this huffy. ‘Fine. I’m going down.’

‘When I froze, he said look into his eyes, so I did! That’s all! And he was nice, nicer than you’re being.’

‘I’m not bloody surprised he was nice the way you were pawing him.’

‘I was not pawing!’ I give him my evil eye. ‘Why are you being so nasty?’

He sighs. ‘Honestly? Well I don’t know what’s got into you. You need to chill, be yourself, not pretend to be, to be …’

‘Some seductress?’ It comes out stiff, cold. ‘Every time I’m getting somewhere, doing what you told me to, you say it’s wrong!’ I wish I was in a position to prod him with a finger, to make my point, but I’m not. ‘And it’s not wrong! It’s working! I’m working, people are asking me out!’

‘Just chill, be yourself. Don’t pretend you’re somebody who wants, who wants to be with a jerk who’ll give you the run-around!’

‘But that’s the point! This is not me, I’m not being myself! You made me different. I don’t climb ropes!’ I realise I am glaring at him. ‘You’re never happy, are you? You find fault with everything I do!’

‘No, I don’t! I just don’t want you to date twats who won’t respect you.’

‘Fine, anyway he asked me out,’ I say, smiling smugly, but actually not feeling smug. There’s a hole in my stomach, an emptiness because I don’t want to do this on my own. I want Noah to be happy for me.

‘He what? When, when did he have time—’

‘You’ve been watching us?’

‘I was just checking you were okay. I feel responsible,’ he says stiffly.

‘Noah!’

‘So what did he do, follow you to the toilets or something?’

‘No,’ I sigh, ‘I was stuck up a rope, remember? Your idea? I had a panic attack the first time. I told you I didn’t like heights and he helped me down, then we were kind of looking at each other … and he got me a drink of water and told me to sit down for a minute.’

‘And?’

‘Well then I felt better, and he told me when we tried again to just listen carefully to his voice, and,’ I take a deep breath, ‘I said he had a lovely voice I could listen to all day, which made him laugh. Then he told me about his cat.’

‘His cat?’

‘Yeah and how he’s saving for a house, which is why he’s doing these lessons. It’s not what he normally does. I listened, made it about him like you told me to and you were right! I forgot all about being nervous cos I made it about him.’ I smile, he doesn’t smile back, so I blunder on. ‘Then he asked me out.’

‘Great.’ He rests his head against the wall.

‘Glad you’re pleased for me,’ I say stiffly. ‘I better ask him to rescue me again, get me down.’