Francesco slowed down. ‘Sorry, I actually have a date,’ he said. ‘I’ve gotta go in five.’

‘You have a date? At 10 p.m.? I didn’t know you were doing that. Dating. I thought you were maybe just … I don’t know. I knew you saw Caroline for a drink or whatever. I didn’t know it was …’

‘What?’

‘Nothing. It doesn’t matter.’

Francesco shrugged. ‘I’m not seeing Caroline. I mean, she’s nice and everything. But I was at The Boot with Charlie the other night and got chatting to this girl – this woman – and so I got her number. It seemed like the logical thing to do.’

‘Well good for you,’ Penny said, trying to sound like she meant it. ‘I’ll cook pasta for one, then.’

‘You aren’t seeing Priyesh tonight?’

‘I might do, now, actually. I guess I’d started to think of Tuesday night as our night, or something. I’m being silly.’

Francesco studied her. ‘Okay, well.’

‘Well,’ Penny repeated, and Francesco put down his tea towel, their game over. Penny knew she should wish him a nice night, but she didn’t.

Movie night? Priyesh texted Penny, a bit later.

You know what? Penny texted back. I’m actually truly exhausted. Later in the week?

Sure, he typed back. Can I drop anything by? Candles? Hot water bottle?

You’re sweet, said Penny. But I’m good, I think.

Penny retired upstairs to the flat, commandeered candles from the living room, ran the hot tap on full, and the cold tap just a little, and located her Jo Malone bath foam instead of the usual Radox. It felt like a Jo Malone bath foam kind of a night. She said a small prayer for sisters with big salaries and generous gift-giving tendencies.

Soaking in the tub, listing to Matthew McConaughey reading a bedtime story, she examined her feelings. She’d felt funny when Francesco said he was going out on a date, and she wondered what he might be doing right now, and who with. Surely he wasn’t laughing with this other person the same way he laughed with her. As soon as she thought that, though, guilt washed over her – why would she play compare and contrast? She should be thrilled he’d found somebody. She didn’t even know that he and Charlie went to the pub together. He deserved to set up his own life here, after all.

Jealous.

Was she jealous?

She knew she didn’t have any right to be.

Francesco was her friend, and that’s because she’d made it that way. If he wanted to go out for dinner with somebody else, or kiss somebody else, or spend the night with somebody else, that was up to him. It didn’t diminish their friendship. Although, of course, she didn’t really want to know about his sex life, even if he was a friend. She just … didn’t.