Gemma stared at him: a moment’s confusion then delight all over her face, making it light up. She looked a bit tired, but fantastic, he thought. The extra decade had slimmed down her round cheeks and dissolved her puppy fat, and braces on her once appealingly goofy teeth were dragging them back in line. Emad remembered how he’d first fancied her in sixth form, precisely because, he guiltily thought, she wasn’t one of the pretty and therefore unobtainable girls. She’d been the funniest, and the most outrageous, and she had gorgeous eyes – but she’d never been conventionally beautiful. And she’d always been kind to him, where most of the other girls had laughed at his shyness and how hirsute he was.

She was beautiful now, though, albeit still a bit plump and with traces of the old goofy teeth. All his long-forgotten feelings of lust for her came flooding back, reminding him of the times he used to lean against the wall outside the science lab, not having the nerve to go and speak to her, while she would clown around, giggling with her mates further along the same wall. She used to smile at him in class but otherwise mostly ignored him; apart from that one glorious time she’d played him ‘Lose Yourself’ on her iPod, sharing her earphones with him because she’d made some tenuous comment about Eminem and Emad being similar names.

‘Emad Khan! Look at you all grown up. I didn’t know you were one of us. Small world. Are you working here?’ Gemma gave him a hug, beaming. Then she sniffed his shoulder, in a far more familiar way than she ever had when they were doing their A levels.

‘New uniform, if I’m not mistaken? I remember that smell so well.’

He nodded, embarrassed and proud. ‘Only passed out of basic training three weeks ago. Better late than never, eh? Turns out I wasn’t cut out to be a photocopier salesman. Best decision I ever made … Well, I hope it was anyway. Bit early to tell yet. You’re a cop too? I don’t believe it…’

‘Detective, for the last five years,’ Gemma said, clearly unable to hide the note of pride in her voice. ‘DC. Maybe DS soon.’

‘Wow,’ he said with reverence. ‘That’s so cool. What are you working on at the moment?’

‘Gang-related murder in Farnham,’ she said. ‘We got the guy two days ago. Right evil bastard, he is. Hope they throw away the key.’

Emad tried to look at her ring finger, but she had her left hand hooked around the strap of her handbag and he couldn’t see it. She pressed a button on the Fitbit on her wrist.