‘I’m concerned about your nosebleed, Anna. The throbbing you’ve described in your head.’ Her face shadows. ‘I’m glad you’ve told me your head hurts. It’s important that I know these things. Let’s take it step by step. Get some rest and I’ll come and see you later.’

It is dusk when Oliver taps on Anna’s door.

‘How are you feeling?’

She yawns. ‘Fine. I can’t believe I’ve slept. I saw Sofia before I crashed but I haven’t spoken to Eva yet. Is she still around?’

‘She’s finished for the day. Don’t worry, you can see her in the morning. Join me downstairs for dinner? We can talk.’

‘Give me a sec.’ Anna crosses over to Adam and kisses his lips before moving the coin on his bedside table closer to him.

In the cafeteria, Oliver asks, ‘What’s the coin for?’

‘It’s the coin my grandad used to win my nan’s heart.’ Anna laughs at the expression on Oliver’s face. ‘No really.’ She explains about the jukebox. About the coin passing back and forth between her grandparents and now back and forth between her and Adam. ‘Did you and Clem have any rituals?’

‘No,’ Oliver began. ‘Yes, actually. She used to press a finger against her lips. It was her way of telling me that she loved me when she couldn’t say it. From across a room, that sort of thing.’ Oliver fiddles with the salt pot. ‘It was the last thing she ever did.’

‘Oh, Oliver.’ Anna rubs the top of his arm. ‘You must miss her terribly.’

‘You think you know how you’ll feel when you lose someone you love, but you don’t. You can’t possibly imagine it. She’s everywhere and yet she isn’t here. Her absence makes her more present in a way. That doesn’t make any sense, does it?’ Oliver can recite facts and figures but he has never been good at expressing his emotions.

‘It does. She fills your mind.’

Oliver nods. ‘Yes, that’s it. And I haven’t just lost her but I’ve lost everything else I wanted to be. A father. A grandfather. We hadn’t planned on having kids for another few years but we would have done. Eventually.’

‘A child would be a comfort,’ Anna says.

‘Sorry. That was insensitive of me.’ Oliver is horrified at his thoughtlessness. ‘I know you’ve suffered a miscarriage recently. Do you want to talk about it?’

Anna scrapes her hair back with both hands before letting it fall free again. ‘There’s not much to say. We’d wanted a baby for such a long time and now…’ She looks sorrowfully at her flat stomach. ‘Now I’m left with that empty, unbearable sadness that I’ll never get to meet them. Him or her. Harry or Charlotte.’

‘I’m so sorry, Anna.’