Penny shook her head. ‘I don’t need to be treated like a princess,’ she said. ‘I don’t need saving, or rescuing. But I do feel like I made room for him in a way that he didn’t make room for me. Like, if ever there was a spotlight it was implicitly understood that I’d be the one to step back and let him take it. There was never a suggestion that we could share the spotlight.’

‘It’s hard,’ Priyesh acknowledged. ‘Real balance in a relationship is tricky.’

‘Maybe,’ Penny agreed. ‘Or maybe it’s only tricky if you don’t communicate. And I mean constant communication. I think I was a bit guilty of getting mad he wasn’t a mind reader. I could have done better in telling him what I expected. But then, I was so young, I didn’t know how to do that yet.’

‘Ahhhh, the beauty of getting older: knowing thyself.’

‘You seem like you know yourself very well,’ Penny suggested.

‘I think I’m just getting the hang of it at the ripe old age of fifty-one,’ Priyesh replied.

‘You are twenty years older than me. Did you know that?’

Priyesh shrugged. ‘I assumed I was probably closer to David’s age than yours.’

Penny finished what was in her glass.

‘Here,’ Priyesh said. ‘You have this last little bit that’s left.’ He emptied the bottle for her and Penny continued to drink.

‘Does a twenty-year age gap bother you?’ Priyesh asked.

Penny shook her head. ‘No, it doesn’t bother me,’ she said. ‘I mean, this is …’

‘Fun,’ Priyesh supplied.

‘Fun,’ Penny repeated.

‘Is this the point at which we talk about what a great night it’s been, but acknowledge it is such a shame to part so early?’

‘Oh wow,’ Penny giggled. ‘You’re really good at this! So smooth! Those twenty years you have on me mean you’re better at the sexual segue than I am.’

‘Sexual segue?’

‘You’re so about to kiss me.’

‘Am I now?’

Penny batted her eyelashes and didn’t say anything, daring him to prove her right. She was bolder with him than she’d ever dared been in her life. Priyesh leaned in and moved her hair from her neck, exactly as he had done the night of the Christmas party.

‘If I was about to kiss you,’ he whispered, ‘where would I start …?’

His lips met her neck softly, and Penny closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

‘Would I start here?’ he asked. ‘Or here …?’ His second kiss landed at the base of her ear. ‘Perhaps I’d start here,’ he wondered aloud, kissing behind her ear, now.

‘That’s nice,’ sighed Penny.

Priyesh moved his hand to cradle her chin, rubbing his thumb over her lips.

‘Can you kiss me properly now, please?’ she asked.

Priyesh smiled. ‘Only because you asked so politely,’ he mumbled, leaning in.