Although his mother was being alarmingly over-bright – chatting non-stop with Lucy like a wind-up toy. She had given his girlfriend a lovely present of a silver bracelet, nicely wrapped in tissue paper with a ribbon and a card, but Leo sensed she was making a considerable effort to hold herself together. At first he’d thought she was ill with the throat bug she’d mentioned two days ago. But as the lunch went on, he knew it was something more fundamental than that. She could barely look at his father.

Things went reasonably well during the antipasti, the veal chop and right up until after the coffee semifreddo. Antonio had stuck a candle into Lucy’s, written ‘Happy Birthday’ in piped chocolate around the edge of her plate, the waiters gathering round to sing to her – much to Lucy’s intense embarrassment. Then, almost as if a switch had been thrown, his parents seemed to give up on the whole event.

‘I need to pee,’ his father said, uttering the now familiar refrain.

Which took for ever, as the Gents was down in the basement and Leo – who chaperoned him – was terrified he’d fall on the steep stairs, especially after two glasses of wine.

As his dad was peeing in the single urinal, Leo hovering nearby, Michael turned to look at him, stating baldly, ‘I’ve upset your mother.’

Leo nodded as his father leant against the wall, breathing hard as he struggled to close his flies. ‘I thought there was something up between you.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘So what did you do this time, Dad?’ His father appeared grim-faced but Leo couldn’t imagine, in his current condition, that his offence was too serious. Mum’s probably just had enough, he thought, mindful of the long and arduous months she’d put in, caring for him.

His dad didn’t reply as he picked up his stick and began the slow journey out of the cramped toilet and up the stairs.

Leo, right behind, repeated, ‘What did you do, Dad?’

‘Don’t ask. You really don’t want to know,’ came the caustic reply, as they reached the top of the stairs and were greeted by his mum, clearly impatient, and Lucy.

‘We’ll take you back,’ Leo said to his father, assuming his mum would want to get home. Then he and Lucy planned to have a potter round the shops on Duke of York Square, although most of them were way out of their price range.

‘No,’ his mum said, directing a brittle smile at Lucy. ‘I’ll take him. You two go off and have fun.’