Feeling at least a little better, Alexa walked back into the middle of the room.

Jack peeked over his shoulder as he heard her approaching footsteps.

‘Hey.’ Her voice sounded high and reedy. ‘Jack, could you …?’

‘Oh.’ He looked stricken. ‘Yes, do you want me to –?’ He pointed at the corner where Alexa and Ellen had had their argument.

‘No, Jack,’ Alexa replied, gently. ‘You can go to the window.’

20. Jack

‘Oh, it’s you again,’ Ellen said when he arrived, but he was fairly sure she was joking.

She was resting both arms on the skylight’s frame. There wasn’t much room for Jack.

He stood back slightly. ‘Hello.’

‘Left them to it, then.’

‘Yes.’

‘When the hell is that fucking locksmith going to come?’ She rested her chin on her hands now, head still cocked away from him.

He took out his phone. There it was: Twitter. He cupped the phone carefully, angling the screen far from Ellen, but the connection was slow. He was desperate just to stand and watch the screen until it reconnected, to confirm that the previous tweet had sent – but he didn’t want to look suspicious. Plus, he remembered Ellen had said something to him.

‘Yeah. It seems weird it’s taking so long.’

‘Have you got any signal yet?’

‘Oh. No.’ Then he added, quickly, ‘That’s why I keep checking my phone.’

‘Right.’ She glanced at him, but she seemed to have bought it. She asked, ‘What time is it now?’

He checked his phone. ‘Twelve-oh-eight.’

Ellen sighed. ‘Maybe everyone in south London really has locked themselves out today. Or in an attic.’

‘Yeah.’

Twitter was still buffering wheezily. With some difficulty, he put his phone back in his pocket. He strained slightly to see if he could hear Alexa or Ben talking, but he couldn’t.

‘So’ – wondering how to phrase it – ‘are you and Alexa OK again?’

Ellen lifted her head from her chin and turned to look at him. ‘Yeah.’ She sounded a little unconvincing.

‘Oh, good …’ Jack paused. ‘So, does that mean that Alexa and Ben –?’

Ellen shrugged. ‘I think that’s probably what they’re chatting about.’

‘Should we give them a few minutes?’

‘Yeah. Let’s give them a few minutes.’

For some time, they both stood at the window in fairly comfortable silence. After a while, Jack couldn’t tell if they’d left Alexa and Ben to talk for three minutes or thirty. He took out his phone. It had been seven. He couldn’t resist: he tried opening Twitter again.