Francesco came to her and kissed her deeply.

‘That was so hot to watch,’ he said.

‘Give me a second to recover,’ Penny replied, catching her breath. ‘And I will return the favour.’

‘To be honest,’ Francesco said, ‘watching you writhe around like that felt like the favour.’

Penny chuckled and jokingly smacked his arm. ‘Save it for your wank bank,’ she giggled, before letting out another satisfied sigh.

As the spring sun started to peek through the curtains, the pair lay entwined in each other, the music having stopped, the candles burnt down, just the two of them and the dawn silence.

‘Five times. I can’t believe …’

‘I know,’ said Francesco. ‘I was really starting to freak out about it. Everything else was so great but I thought, what if we don’t get the hang of it? Would we have had to break up?’

‘Well, five times certainly makes up for a few false starts.’

‘I’ll say,’ said Francesco, slipping his hand further down her body and forcing Penny to pull away.

‘Mister, you’re going to have to feed me before I have the energy to go again. I think we’ve proved our point.’

Francesco retreated. ‘Fair play,’ he said. ‘I’ll poke about for a breakfast menu in a minute. I’m sure they’ll do room service.’

‘Oh, for sure,’ said Penny. ‘But don’t get up. Don’t move yet. I like you right here.’

Penny closed her eyes, her face nuzzled into Francesco’s neck from behind, the big spoon to his little spoon. She was her normal hot-water-bottle self, but it made her feel womanly and powerful, pushed up against him this way.

‘Are you real?’ she said, quietly.

‘If you’re real, I’m real,’ Francesco whispered.

‘Falling in friendship,’ Penny said, and Francesco moved so that they were nose-to-nose.

‘Falling in friendship,’ he repeated.

Penny traced the outline of his face with her fingertip.

‘I like to be the one who makes you laugh,’ she said. ‘That’s my favourite thing. The first morning you came to the café somebody on the phone made you laugh, and I saw through the window, and I thought – I wonder what it would take to make a man that handsome laugh so much.’

‘Somebody probably told me a fart joke,’ Francesco said. Then he added, ‘I knew you were watching me you know. I could feel it. You barely said hello to me after you let me in. You just carried on talking to Stu. And I thought, who is this woman who doesn’t even care who is delivering her bread? But then I felt you staring.’

‘Mr Ego.’

‘No, not Mr Ego. I just … I wanted you to notice me.’

‘Job done.’

‘Making me wait weeks before you texted me, though … Totally outrageous.’

‘No! Don’t!’ Penny said. ‘I still don’t know what I was thinking. I was intimidated.’

‘Intimidated.’ He arched his eyebrow, disbelievingly.