Penny giggled. ‘I’ve noticed that,’ she said. He’d turned up at the pub the day before and asked to speak with her outside, where, despite the fact that anyone could have walked out to the outdoor fridge at any moment he had pushed aside her apron and put his hand inside her knickers until she came.

Their love-making was erotic and hot and dirty and exactly the kind of sex Penny had held in her mind for years when she thought of what it meant to have ‘good’ sex. After they’d spent their first night together it became a twice-weekly and then three-or-four-times-weekly event. Christmas came and went, and she slipped away to visit Uncle David and Eric and Clementine and Rima for Boxing Day, but then instead of going anyway to sunnier climes Penny spent the whole of her New Year’s break in Priyesh’s luxurious house, half-naked with the fire burning. Uncle David had seemed encouraged that she couldn’t wait to get back – she didn’t have the courage to tell him the real reason for it.

Now, in January, she enjoyed getting away from the pub after service, showering at Priyesh’s big fancy house using the oils and shampoos in his shower and padding into his bedroom barefoot, in a big fluffy dressing gown, smelling clean and fresh. He’d turn the corner of the page of his book, gently take off his reading glasses and set them on his bedside table, and then do filthy things to her for an hour until she slept like a baby curled up beside him.

Penny wouldn’t have called it dating, since most of their time together was confined to the bedroom, but she was definitely fond of him. He was attentive and respectful, and after welcoming in a new month that marked eight months of her leadership at the pub, Penny held tight to the fact that she was over halfway through her commitment. She wouldn’t be here much longer – but in the meantime she was determined to keep finding her pleasure where she could. She felt like she had the best of all worlds – a hot present, and a change in her future. And really, with the age gap, it couldn’t really be much else.

‘What are you thinking?’ he asked her one night, as they lay next to each other, naked and recovering.

Penny lazily inhaled and smiled. ‘I was thinking about Uncle David,’ she said. ‘And what he might make of … this.’

‘I see,’ Priyesh replied. ‘Are you intending to tell him?’

‘Not especially,’ said Penny. ‘Unless you think I should?’

Priyesh put a hand out to her thigh. ‘Whatever you think,’ he said. ‘Although, obviously he is my friend, and you are basically his daughter, so there is that to consider. If you are going to tell him, give me a head’s up so I can talk to him too.’