‘I won’t change my mind,’ I assured her, and as I said it I knew it was true. Antwerp would be amazing for somebody else, but not for me. My life was in London, with the Core Four and Freddie and the new flat and a day a week to do something else. That was enough. In fact, it was more than enough. It was way too much to give up.

I felt ten feet tall as I left to walk off what had just happened. The sun was shining, even though it was chilly, and London was bustling and metropolitan. I passed posters for theatre productions and women walking dogs and couples holding hands and a group of schoolkids jostling on the pavement, being raucous and silly. I smiled at their laughter, right as a man cleared his throat and said,

‘For God’s sake, could you take it down a decibel or twenty?’

One of the sixth-formers – identifiable by a polyester high street suit instead of a school-issued blazer with the crest sewn onto the breast pocket – heckled loudly, ‘All right, Grandad, keep your teeth in.’ It forced her schoolmates to howl at her comeback, saying variations of ‘Burn!’ and ‘Ouch, Mr!’ They jostled down the pavement and I had to step out of their way. In the space between where they’d been and where I stood was Alexander.

‘Annie.’

He was sat opposite a young, twenty-something brunette I vaguely recognized but couldn’t place, at a pavement café. He wore a denim shirt with slim-fit chinos that revealed bare ankles, which didn’t seem to suit him. He looked mismatched with his subtly lined face sitting at odds with his white trainers, like the top half hadn’t passed along the memo that the bottom half of him wasn’t the same age as his companion. I thought about ignoring him, but he looked so hopeful as he said my name that I made a choice to stay where I was.

‘Hello,’ I said.

I realized that his outspread hand was clutching the fingers of the twenty-something, and as he saw me notice he pulled away. The woman looked hurt.

‘Cameron,’ she said, with a little wave. ‘We met at the Christmas party last year.’

‘Yes,’ I said, placing her now. ‘Alexander’s new assistant. Not new anymore I suppose.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I suppose not.’

‘We were just taking a break to talk about a project we’re presenting tomorrow,’ Alexander said.