He wasn’t lonely, not really, though sometimes when he thought about how big London was and how he didn’t really know many people here, it made him feel a little bit dizzy. He liked commuting to work, feeling like he was part of the city’s rhythm. He liked the tribalism too: rolling his eyes when the Tube was delayed; those moments of fleeting kinship with others on the platform when the announcer made a bad joke over the tannoy. But when he realized how few people knew him here, then it was easy to feel a bit like he didn’t exist. He had his sister but she was miles away, and they didn’t really have the sort of relationship where they went to the pub or did things like that. And Jack wasn’t sure if Alexa or Ellen would notice if he didn’t come home one night. They’d just assume he was at a friend’s house, or somewhere else, maybe at a party. And Johnny probably thought that Jack had lots of other friends, like Johnny did now – people he’d met at work, and mates of Annie’s.

Still, whenever Jack’s mum called to say hi, he’d always tell her he was having a great time, and give her a story about the climbing wall or what he’d been doing at work or how he’d gone to a really nice pub. He wouldn’t want her to think he wasn’t having a really great time in London.

He knew she enjoyed telling her friends about how he was living and working down south – just like his sister. Two grown-up children settled in London! He knew she liked that, even though she missed him and she always told him so before they hung up.

11. Ellen

‘What do you do, Ben?’ Ellen asked, suddenly.

She knew this made her sound a little like she was Alexa’s maiden aunt. Still, it was a question – and it was the question you asked, even though she knew the answer, because she’d heard all about him from Alexa.

‘I work for a social housing charity in Peckham,’ he said.

‘Cool.’

‘How about you?’ he said. He teasingly kissed the back of Alexa’s neck and she turned, delighted.

‘I work at an organic tampon company. Doing their blog and Twitter and stuff. You could say …’ She paused, to give the requisite oomph to a line she had delivered many times before. ‘I am the voice of the UK’s leading brand of CBD-infused tampons.’

He raised his eyebrows. He appeared underwhelmed.

‘It’s a talking point,’ she added, although it hadn’t seemed to inspire conversation in Ben. She groped for her script. ‘And where are you from?’

‘Peckham,’ he supplied, ‘… well, not originally. I grew up somewhere called Gillingham and then I went to uni in Bristol. But now I’m in Peckham. Near Queens Road?’