He took out his phone and switched on the torch function, pulling the door fully open. ‘Not a whole lot to see, but interesting, isn’t it?’

‘Um…’ Meredith stepped cautiously inside. It was cold and dank, and smelled of damp stone and raw earth – how she imagined the depths of a well would be. Gooseflesh swept up over her arms and shoulders and back down her chest as the door swung shut behind them. He was right, there wasn’t a lot to see, just gracefully curved brickwork, like in a wine cellar. It went much further back than she would have thought, though.

‘Room for a lot of ice in here,’ she commented.

Ralph wrapped his arms affectionately round her neck from behind, blinding her with his torch. Meredith pushed his hand away, mostly to deflect the torch beam. ‘Gerroff!’ she said, trying to pretend they were back to normal, that he hadn’t just had his penis inside her. Sparring buddies, mates.

He turned her round and tried to kiss her again. She responded, but half-heartedly this time. ‘Ralph,’ she said, wriggling free. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. ‘We should never have done this. I feel terrible about Paula. She’s my friend. Your wife!’

A flash of guilt passed over his features, but then he gave an airy wave of the hand, the one holding his phone, making the torch’s white light strobe round the cellar. ‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘She’ll never know. And she’s no saint herself, so you don’t need to feel all that bad.’

‘Really? She’s never mentioned any indiscretions to me.’ Meredith was genuinely surprised. Paula didn’t seem the straying sort, any more than Ralph did.

But then Ralph had just fucked her.

‘Anyway,’ she said decisively. ‘I’m going to go home now, and we will never speak of this again. OK?’

‘OK dear heart. One more kiss first … please?’

She did kiss him again. One for the road, as it were. It was a tender, lingering kiss that, weirdly, spoke more of their friendship than of their illicit sexual congress. She was very fond of Ralph, she realised afresh.

‘I don’t want this to ruin our friendship,’ she said, breaking off the kiss and raising her hand to stroke his face with her fingers. But he sneezed, suddenly and explosively, and as they both turned their heads away, the sharp edge of her ring caught him under the eye and she felt it drag down the flesh of his cheek.

‘Ow! Shit!’

‘Oh no. I’m so sorry. Did I get you? Is it bleeding?’

Ralph dropped the phone, torch down, and they were plunged into darkness, bar a sheet of white light at ground level. They both lunged down to get it, banging heads on the way, and started to laugh. Meredith got to it first, shining it towards him.