Deepti had a very loud voice, and Jack’s face went beetroot. A few of his colleagues watched as she walked from her desk to his, hands on her hips. Today she was wearing a pair of leggings with a banana pattern on them. When she reached his desk she seemed to tower over him. On cue, Flora arrived at her shoulder.

‘Well?’ Deepti smiled at him. ‘Sounds like someone had an eventful weekend.’

‘Saw you on the news, Jacko,’ Flora piped up.

Jack was aware that a few of his other colleagues were staring, heads cocked in interest. He swallowed, then laughed, nervously. ‘Yeah,’ he managed, finally.

Deepti and Flora were still smiling at him. Flora had put her cereal bowl on Jack’s desk and also had her hands on her hips now.

‘Well?’ Deepti said again. ‘Tell us what happened!’ She was balanced on the corner of Jack’s desk now.

Flora picked up her cereal bowl and started eating slowly, watching him, as though the muesli was popcorn and Jack was a film.

‘Well,’ he started. He still felt like there was a sea of eyes watching him, although he wasn’t sure anyone else was really listening properly. Many people were already plugged in, no longer interested in Deepti and Jack and Flora’s conversation. So, emboldened by Deepti’s murmurs of encouragement, Jack tried again. He explained it all in a bit of a rush, and a few of the details came out in the wrong order, but all in all, he was pretty pleased with it. He glanced between Flora and Deepti. He felt a little breathless.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw you on the news,’ Flora said in wonder. ‘It was just on in the background while I was having a glass of wine with my mum and then I saw you and I screamed, “Oh my God, it’s Jack!!” and she jumped a foot in the air. Then we unmuted it to listen to you.’ She cocked an eyebrow. ‘She said you were “very charming”.’

Jack’s face felt warm.

‘I was just sat on the Overground, with Cody, on my way to Hackney Marshes,’ Deepti said. ‘So, obviously, I was on Twitter. And then suddenly all these people I knew were retweeting you. At first I couldn’t believe it was the same person.’

‘Wait, so how did you end up on the telly, though?’ Flora was watching him carefully.

‘Well, the BBC producer guy DM’d me on Twitter and then asked if he could interview me –’

‘Wait – I’m so confused about your housemates, though,’ Deepti interjected. ‘So they all knew each other? Or they didn’t?’ Cody had come in search of Deepti and was now circling her left foot, nose to the floor. She leaned down to ruffle his ears, still watching Jack.

‘Well, two of them are best friends,’ Jack said. ‘Ellen and Alexa. They went to university together. But Ben –’