‘Lisa, are you okay?’

I turn over and see a man lying next to me on the sofa. He has short chestnut hair and almond-shaped brown eyes. He is completely naked.

Startled, I jump to my feet.

‘Lisa, what is it?’ he says, pushing the covers away. ‘You were screaming in your sleep. Was it a nightmare?’

As I stand looking at him the dream slowly peels away and the events of the previous evening return to me. The bottle of wine, the kiss. We must have …

‘You have to go,’ I say, collecting my clothes, which are lying in a tangled heap by the sofa. ‘Joe will be awake soon. He can’t see this.’

‘It’s okay,’ he says gently, holding his hands up. ‘Everything’s okay.’

He’s talking to me like I’m an idiot, a child who has no control over herself. Mark used to do the same thing. From the moment we met at university he infantilized me, told me what I should wear, how I should revise, which friends I should see, what I should eat in restaurants. When we got married he booked the church and the honeymoon, he chose the rings and drew up the guest list. Once we were married I didn’t have to think for myself at all. Every bill was organized on a spreadsheet that he kept on his computer, the grocery shopping was done – by him – online, he even laid out my clothes each morning. ‘I just don’t want you to worry about anything, Lisa,’ he would say when I protested. ‘You’ve been through enough.’

And he was right, I told myself, I had been through enough. When I met Mark I was still grieving for my father, though it had been seven years since his death. I had blocked out the world after Dad died, numbed my feelings to such an extent that the idea of having someone take me under their wing and make decisions about the ordinary day-to-day things that, back then, seemed so overwhelming, was an appealing one. My mother had been so distraught after my dad died that she had pretty much left me to my own devices so I arrived at university with no practical skills whatsoever. I couldn’t cook or clean or even change a light bulb. I was useless. And then, suddenly, here was Mark, this intelligent, good-looking man, who appeared to adore me and who wanted to help me navigate the confusion that was life.