So I drop the ball in my teeth and we actually have a proper conversation. I ask about him, and he asks about me, and I realise I’ve become so obsessed with my quest that I haven’t appreciated all the experiences I’ve collected during my stay in Switzerland so far. I wish I was here with no agenda other than to enjoy living in a foreign country with all its surprises.

‘You have to do your laundry on a certain day?’ I say, when he tells me about the quirks of Swiss living that foreigners don’t understand.

‘Yep, there’s a rota up in my apartment block for the communal machine in the basement. If you don’t keep to it people start getting passive–aggressive. Notes on the machine, a knock on the door and a polite telling off.’

‘That’s hilarious. Why don’t you just have your own machine?’

He looks at me in mock horror. ‘What? Have a noisy machine right there in my flat?’ I laugh and he takes a swig of his beer and smiles back. ‘You get used to this stuff when you’ve been here a while.’

‘How long is that?’

‘Since I was fourteen.’

‘So you’re a Swiss citizen now, right?’ I calculate that, if Jorge’s about my age, he’s been living here for around twenty-five years. Surely that makes him Swiss.

He shakes his head. ‘No. You can apply after a decade or so, less if you grew up here, but it’s expensive and you have to jump through so many hoops I just haven’t bothered.’

‘But do you feel Swiss?’

He shrugs. ‘I guess. I mean, sort of. I don’t feel more Spanish than Swiss in any case – apart from when I mess with the washing rota.’

‘I wish I had the opportunity to have dual citizenship. I’m just boringly one-dimensional,’ I say, and then my stomach jolts as I realise what I’ve said. Biologically, I’m presumably at least half Swiss. But for a twist of fate, I’d be more Swiss than Jorge. I might have a Swiss life like Julia’s, with her kids and husband and high-powered job and posh house above the lake.

I don’t know what happens to my face just then but he must see it cloud.

‘I can find someone to translate what you need into German,’ he says, and his gaze is so direct I want to look away.