‘Yeah,’ Francesco replied. ‘I’m pleased that you’re happy – or whatever – too.’

‘Night then.’

‘Night.’

Penny was furious at herself for having asked, and furious at herself for being upset by the answer. But, at least it made things clear in her mind: she definitely wouldn’t go back there with him. In a way, it was a relief to have that clarified with herself. He’d moved on, exactly as she was doing. Her phone lit up.

Last night was amazing, it said.

Penny’s stomach did a tiny somersault at the memory of it. I think so too, she replied. I’m really enjoying spending time with you, Thomas.

She could see the three dots on screen that meant he was typing a response. After a moment, another message came through.

Me too, Penny. You’ve certainly added some exhilaration to Havingley!

Ha, she said. I feel exactly the same.

‘Well, you know they say you can fall in love with thirty questions,’ Penny remarked.

She was with Thomas in the pub, after service. They’d seen each other every night for the whole week since their first date in the Peaks. He’d taken her for drives, on two more early morning walks, and shown her the cinema room at his house, which was beautiful. Their dynamic was light. Pure. Honest. Penny had made a friend who distracted her from being too work work work, and she also happened to like kissing him. The sex wasn’t half bad either. Since she’d established that she and Francesco were squarely in the friend zone, it felt very sincere to savour Thomas’s company. He might have terrible dress sense, but he was also curious and authentic and his boyish enthusiasm for, well, everything, was infectious.

‘Thirty questions?’

‘Or maybe it’s thirty-five. I saw something on Twitter about it. You ask each other the questions that are supposed to get more and more intimate and then at the end you look into each other’s eyes for five minutes and hey presto! It’s love!’

‘Oh my god!’ Thomas trilled, in a silly high-pitched voice. ‘Let’s fall in love!’ He went to pull out his phone. ‘I’m googling it now.’ He stabbed at his phone with his thumbs. ‘Questions … to … fall …’ he said, under his breath. ‘In … love. Oh you’re right – there’s loads of stuff about it here. It’s thirty-six questions, though. Okay.’

Penny leaned over his shoulder, looking at his screen with him. He turned and gave her a peck on the cheek. He wasn’t shy about his physical affection. He was always pawing at her waist or smoothing her hair or kissing her. Penny liked it. Using her body with him put her firmly back into her physical self, instead of where she had been living: in her head.

‘Okay, I’ll just pick a link. Surely they all say the same thing.’