‘I try to learn from them as much as possible, especially now I’m old enough to appreciate them – which already feels too late, to be honest. I don’t know where I get it from, but I can be very competitive. For a long time I thought it was more important to be right than to be kind, but these last few years I’ve really tried to practise the opposite. It’s more important to be kind than right.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ve never thought about it that way, but yes, I think I agree. Anybody can be stubborn and hold their ground and get others to bend to their will, but the better person will do the kind thing? Is that what you mean?’

‘Exactly,’ he said, sniffing the Barolo he’d ordered that lurked at the bottom of his fishbowl of a glass.

‘And you said this past few years you’ve learned the difference?’

‘Yeah. Since my divorce, really.’

Penny nodded. He’d mentioned his marriage ending the other day, as well. It was obviously still painful for him.

‘I don’t still dwell on it, for the record,’ Priyesh added, as if he’d read her mind. ‘I’m very removed from the emotion of it, when I talk about how I used to be married. It’s fact to me now: I put my ego before my wife too often, and in the end it cost me. So now I try not to do that. In fact, your uncle was quite the clergyman to me when I was struggling.’

Penny brightened at the mention of Uncle David. ‘Oh yeah?’ she asked. ‘You talked to him about it all?’

Priyesh nodded. ‘I did. He’d cook for me and listen to me feel ashamed of myself. He really gave me his time – and Eric, too. They’re a great couple, aren’t they?’

‘So great,’ grinned Penny. She played with her wine glass as well, mirroring Priyesh without realizing. ‘They met when I was twenty years old, and right from the start it was like the clouds had parted and the heavens smiled upon them and—’

‘And angels sang?’

Penny laughed. ‘Do you know what I mean though? They are so in harmony together, and have so much respect for each other. It never felt that way with my ex, who I met around about the same time. We were together ages but I always knew – had a little niggle in the back of my mind – that it could be better.’

‘Don’t tell me you didn’t get treated like a princess …’ Priyesh said.