A yoga teacher. A potter. A garden designer. A psychotherapist. An instructor in the Alexander technique. These are the occupations of women of a certain age. A yoga teacher will at least have a supple body. She will know the routines of the Kama Sutra. When they stand at the end of dinner, and for a moment Judith looks away, Jomier stands back to assess her figure but her dress is long and loose. It covers her like muslin over a cheese. All that is exposed is her face, her hands and what can been seen through the window of her décolletage – the loose skin under her chin, the tight skin over her breastbone, the soft, tanned, freckled, chamois leathery base of her breasts. And her eyes? Jomier cannot remember their colour. And now she is looking away.

It is eleven o’clock. The guests would like to go home but if they leave now Ruth would consider that her evening was a flop. It is another half-hour before the party breaks up. Jomier takes his leave. As he enters the narrow hall, Judith comes down the stairs. ‘Here.’ She hands him her card. Jomier smiles at her but she is already past him. Jomier leaves the house. He stops, takes out his wallet, puts the card in one of the slots designed for credit cards. He gets into his Volkswagen Golf and returns home.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Jomier sleeps badly. Jomier always sleeps badly after drinking more than one glass of wine. Jomier knows this and would like to drink less or nothing at all but cannot endure a dinner party without a drink. The immediate effect of the first drink is to undermine his resolve not to have a second. Alcohol enters his bloodstream. He becomes eloquent. He laughs as if amused. He flirts. He responds to flirtation. He makes foolish suggestions: ‘I’ll rewrite the letter and ask you out.’ ‘What about an email?’ Six hours later, at five in the morning, he lies wide awake. What had possessed him? He has made a commitment. He has raised expectations.