‘Oh nothing.’ He smiles. ‘This is all getting a bit serious, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be talking about lighter things?’

She wags her finger. ‘That’s very true. Hang on and I’ll hunt down something else to drink. This one won’t last long, will it?’ Even though there is plenty left in the bottle Greg brought, she’s at that stage now where she doesn’t want the buzz to wear off. She hasn’t had this feeling since her twenties when she’d spend her nights clubbing until the early morning. This is an escape for Abby, and she doesn’t know when another chance will come along.

She stands up and teeters, falling straight back to the sofa. ‘Oops!’

‘Let me go,’ Greg offers. ‘I think I can find my way around your kitchen.’

He begins to stand, but Abby beats him to it – this time able to steady herself. ‘No, I insist. You just stay here and… make yourself at home. I mean, that is what we’re supposed to do, isn’t it? But not too much at home, right?’ More laughter, from her, or both of them, she no longer knows.

‘I already feel at home,’ Greg says, smiling and resting his head back against the sofa.

A frisson of excitement passes through her in that moment; it’s not that she’s attracted to Greg – although he is a good-looking man – but it feels nice to have his company for a few hours. Different company. Rob doesn’t even cross her mind.

All that’s in the cupboards is an opened bottle of gin. There’s nothing to mix it with and no way she’s going to burn her throat with that stuff, but she hopes Greg won’t mind it.

‘Straight gin,’ he says, when she hands him a glass and takes a sip. ‘We can pretend we’re young again with no standards! I might need a coffee after this.’

Abby agrees that they should definitely have coffee afterwards, yet she’s disappointed there’s no more alcohol.

There’s nothing unusual about the next couple of hours; they’re just two people having a drink together, talking without restraint. It surprises Abby when Greg opens up about his divorce; Sienna always mentions how much of a closed book he is, and that she feels she knows little about his life before they were together, so it feels like a compliment that he’s discussing these things with Abby. She wonders how a marriage can maintain itself in this way, with two people not truly knowing each other inside and out, but then she thinks of Rob and decides that Sienna and Greg probably do have it right after all.

‘It must have been hard,’ she says. ‘Your divorce.’

He nods, a slow, methodical movement. ‘Yes, it was hard. Harder than you could ever know.’