Jack hadn’t had much luck dating in London. He’d tried, sort of. One evening in the kitchen, about two months ago, Ellen had declared it was time to set up a Hinge profile for him. He’d been telling them both, shyly, about his ex-girlfriend, Niamh, whom he’d dated for five months at university. She had been in the year above and they’d met when Jack had gone along to the university’s swing dance club. He wouldn’t usually do anything like that, but he’d seen the flyer in his third week and he’d remembered that university was supposed to be about trying new things. And he hadn’t tried anything new at that point. Because he was from Manchester, he was still living at home, still waking up in the same childhood bedroom that he’d slept in his whole life, walls plastered with his Man City posters, the drawers under his desk still full of his sixth-form folders. Anyway, at the swing dance night, he’d been paired up with Niamh, who was also new, and they’d had fun and then he’d gone back the next week to see her. And then a month later he’d asked her out for a drink. They’d started going out, and he stopped going to swing dance club, which was a huge relief, as he was awful at it.

But she’d broken up with him in the middle of his second term. ‘I’m not sure this is working,’ she’d said, making it sound final, and he couldn’t really argue with that, even though he’d thought it had been working fine. He hadn’t had a proper girlfriend since then. He didn’t always mind, but it would be nice to have someone to do things with. And so he’d mentioned that to Ellen and Alexa, hence the decision to put him on Hinge.

‘It’s sort of awful,’ Ellen said, authoritatively. ‘But everyone’s on it, so you have to join too …’ She paused. Jack had been looking a little apprehensive, so she added, ‘Well, it’s not always awful.’

‘I’ve definitely had a few good dates,’ Alexa said, encouragingly.

So they set up his profile, both of the girls scrolling through his Facebook page for photos.

‘This is a good one,’ Ellen said, selecting a picture of Jack at his graduation ball.