Ellen stared at him. ‘Um, wow. Thanks, Jack.’

He looked anguished. ‘I didn’t m-mean –’ he stuttered. ‘I just meant that maybe, since Ben has said sorry, then maybe you could forgive him.’

Alexa smiled weakly at Jack.

‘Not that I should have to say sorry,’ Ben muttered. He looked at Alexa again, searching for – expecting – her to back him up.

She returned an expression of what she hoped he would read as sympathy. She could feel Ellen was eyeballing them again.

‘Look,’ Ellen sighed, ‘I’m really not trying to make it awkward for you.’ She gestured towards Ben and Alexa, who was about to say something, but Ellen wasn’t finished. ‘But also it was a really shitty thing to do, and I never thought I’d meet the person who –’

‘You haven’t!’ Ben laughed with frustration. ‘Ellen –’

She rolled her eyes in retort.

Alexa knew this was not the right tack. Ellen was uncommonly sensitive. She perceived slights at many turns and still remembered them, in high definition, years later.

‘Maybe we could agree to disagree?’ Jack asked, desperately, after a few seconds.

‘OK –’ Alexa raised one hand.

They all looked at her.

That was all she had. There was an unnerving silence.

Ben snaked his arm from the floor in order to give Alexa’s knee a tentative squeeze. Alexa willed him to stop, knowing that it would trigger something.

On cue, Ellen exhaled impatiently. ‘I think I need a time out.’ She stood up, her eyes darting into the corners of the attic.

They all watched her, Alexa with her heart in her throat. There was something slightly excruciating about trying to flounce off when there was nowhere to flounce to; after some deliberation, Ellen started in the direction of the toilet corner. Unfortunately, in order to get there she had to navigate the thicket of junk, cutting a clumsy figure as she clambered through the heaving canvas bags and warped cardboard boxes. She sat down in front of the full-length mirror, still half visible. She was facing a wall.

Alexa could feel that Ben wanted to say something to her. She tried to ignore it and took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do. ‘Wait, Ellen –’ she commanded. She stood up. ‘I’m … I’m coming.’ Finally, she dared to look at Ben.

He looked rather hurt and seemed to have deflated slightly; his shoulders were rounded and his arms hung at his sides.

‘Alexa? Do you want me to come?’ What this situation did not need was Jack.

She replied with a look, which he understood.

Taking a deep breath, she followed Ellen’s path. As she did so, she knocked a hat stand. She glanced back at the boys again. Jack watched her with big eyes, but Ben was now looking at the floor. Turning again, she picked her way carefully through the attic’s stacks.