‘I don’t know. I…’ He ran out of words. He had known this was going to happen, and suddenly he felt angry. He didn’t need Heather to remind him that he might have lost the person who, behind Kirsty and his close family, meant the most to him in the world. He couldn’t cope with this, not right now. He wanted to shout and scream at the injustice. But he didn’t. Instead, he let Heather cry on his shoulder, and then he opened the wine. It was going to be a long evening.

At eleven, after several hours spent trying to mop up Heather’s tears – a task much better handled by Kirsty, who held her friend while Jamie stared at the TV, feeling numb and exhausted – they called her a taxi.

‘Why don’t you take a few days off work?’ Kirsty suggested. ‘Call in sick.’

‘I might.’

They watched the taxi sail away, then went back inside. Kirsty stared at the empty wine bottles and beer cans, the crumpled, soggy tissues that lay on the floor by the sofa. ‘I’m shattered.’

‘Me too.’

‘I don’t think we’ll be giving the neighbours cause for complaint tonight.’ She smiled wryly.

‘No. I don’t think so.’

But when they had both got into bed, they somehow found themselves rolling together, clinging to one another. In the darkness beneath the quilt, they made love slowly, their hot bellies pressed together, slick with sweat, and when Jamie came he saw a flash of light behind his eyes.. Afterwards, they realised they had made love in silence. But it felt to Jamie that something had happened – something they felt no need to talk about, although he knew Kirsty knew it too.

The next morning, Jamie opened the front door and found a small Jiffy bag lying on the carpet in the hall, addressed to him and Kirsty. He picked it up and tore it open. Inside, there was a CD. He turned it over in his hand. How peculiar.

‘What is it?’ Kirsty asked. Jamie was going to give her a lift into work, as she didn’t feel like taking the Tube this morning. She wanted to keep her contact with people to a minimum.

‘We’ll soon find out.’

After they left Mount Pleasant Street and joined the traffic on the main road, Jamie inserted the CD into the car stereo and pressed PLAY. For the first ten seconds there was nothing but the hiss of silence.

‘It’s blank,’ Jamie said.

‘No, listen.’

‘I still can’t hear anything.’

Kirsty turned the volume up. ‘Now, can’t you hear it?’