Jomier takes the prescription to a branch of Boots in Oxford Street. He pays £19.34 for four capsules of Viagra and £2 for a packet containing three condoms. Jomier does not resent the expenditure because he is in love. The thought of Annie provokes feelings of tenderness: he longs to see her again not so much for her body as for her solicitude and her smile. He is in no doubt that Annie reciprocates his love. Neither has yet used the word but both make no bones about the pleasure taken in the company of the other. The moment has come when they must either move forward or step back. Jomier feels the rectangular shapes of his purchases in the pocket of his jacket. There is no turning back. The die is cast.

Jomier emails Annie to say that he has booked a table at Garnier’s restaurant in Bayswater. He had chosen Garnier’s after a morning’s dithering. It is no longer fashionable; the food is mediocre; the waiters elderly and complacent. But it has a plush, belle-époque decor, a carpeted floor and it is in a street where he will be able to park his car. The belle époque decor seems a suitable backdrop for an intimate dinner of an older man with a younger woman; the carpet means that he will be able to hear what Annie says rather than lose her words in the cackle and clatter bouncing off more fashionable tiled or wooden floors; and it will be convenient for wherever they may choose to go afterwards to have the car close at hand.