We walked, and I hadn’t been prepared for what I saw when we turned a corner into one of the main parts of the city. In a big square were tall stone buildings all pressed up against each other, with narrow windows scoring the front – like the area around Fleet Street back home. It was majestic. Imposing.

‘Whoa,’ I said, gaping in admiration.

The sun was shining and the sky was clear, and the pale stone of the buildings contrasted with the bright flags outside the biggest one, the one that looked like some kind of town hall or central courthouse.

‘The Grote Market,’ Jules stated, and I noticed his designer sunglasses and his stubble and the white of his pressed shirt against the blue of his navy suit. His teeth lined up like perfect ivory gravestones, and his full lips glistened where his tongue had darted out to lick them, just briefly. I couldn’t wait to report back to Adzo that he was as attractive as she’d suggested. She’d love that I’d noticed.

‘This is thirteenth century,’ Jules said. ‘But we reached our prime in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. That’s when Antwerp was the most important city in the Low Countries.’

He moved to stand behind me and lightly put a hand on my shoulder. Lowering his voice and looking out in the same direction as me, pointing just beyond my eyeline he said, ‘Imagine a bustling centre with Flemish merchants doing business with traders from all over Europe. These are all the guild houses, and that’s the Stadhuis – the town hall.’

‘This is seriously impressive,’ I said, turning to him and instantly blushing. I couldn’t help it. I felt disloyal to Patrick, but there was something about being in such close proximity to somebody that handsome. Kezza had briefly dated an actor who’d been in Killing Eve and all the Core Four had agreed: some people really are just otherworldly hot, in a way that defies the physics of humanness. Jules was one of them. I took a step away from him, in case his beauty blinded me. ‘Totally picturesque,’ I added.

‘And at Christmas, Annie,’ he said, and using my name in a sentence like that was a claim on me, ‘it’s unmatched. With the winter market and ice rink …’