Finally Stuart said slowly, ‘Is your man … sleeping with Lizzo?’

Penny pulled a face. ‘I want to say no, but also … why can’t I tell her who I am to him?’

‘Because he’s sleeping with her and she doesn’t know he also has a little Derbyshire baby tucked away in the dales?’ Stuart supplied.

‘No,’ Penny said. ‘Surely not …’

‘Sorry about it,’ Stuart replied. His tone changed. ‘But also, not sorry, because Francesco is obviously “The One”. How have you not figured that out yet? Although of course, Francesco can’t get us backstage passes.’

‘You don’t actually think he’s sleeping with her, do you?’ Penny said.

Stuart looked at her like she was stupid. ‘Let’s go and enjoy the show,’ he replied, gently. ‘Maybe let’s get you a drink, too.’

‘I don’t know if I am more upset to know who I’m sharing him with, or that I’m basically his secret.’

Stuart handed her a glass of champagne from a small catering table down a side corridor.

‘Ethical non-monogamy though, remember? He told you upfront what the deal was.’

Penny downed her glass. ‘I suppose so,’ she said, hurriedly adding: ‘Anyway. I’m here for the music. Let’s go find our box seats.’

The morning after the concert, Penny stood in the walk-in shower of Thomas’s hotel room, remembering the look on Stuart’s face as he shook Lizzo’s hand after her show, and just how loudly he’d screamed in between singing along to every single song – exactly as Penny herself had done. It had been a superb night, and Lizzo had been lovely to them afterwards as well, although she was still none the wiser as to Thomas’s relationship to her. Wrapped in a big bath towel Penny walked through to where she thought Thomas still slept, humming one of Lizzo’s songs.

‘Morning sunshine,’ Thomas said. The table by the window was overloaded with food: pastries and juices, cooked eggs and jugs of bearnaise sauce. Thomas sat in his boxers.

‘This is breakfast?’ Penny said in awe. ‘All of this just for us?’

‘I didn’t know what you might want,’ he yawned, ‘so I ordered a bit of everything. You made me work up quite the appetite.’

He craned his neck to give her a kiss, which she accepted.

‘Mmmmm,’ she replied. ‘Get your energy up and then maybe it will be my turn to come,’ she said, settling into a chair beside the table laden with food. She’d meant it to sound sassy, but it came out sour. Priyesh always put her pleasure front and centre, and she couldn’t hide the fact that Thomas’s selfishness last night had irritated her.

‘Okay, grumpy,’ Thomas said, unfolding a napkin.

She didn’t say anything, popping a blueberry in her mouth instead.

‘What shall we do today? The whole city is our oyster.’