Their timing had always been off. She’d been with someone, and then he had, and despite what seemed an obvious mutual attraction, they’d managed to go almost three years without getting together. Had she seen his stuff? Had she asked around to find out where he was sitting? Or was it coincidence?

His heart tripped into a higher gear as he walked behind her and took his seat. There was no way he was leaving until she did.

She removed her headphones and said, ‘Hey. Good session?’

‘Yeah,’ he replied, wishing he’d gone back to his room to shower. ‘Studying hard?’

What a stupid question, he thought immediately. Studying hard?

She smiled. ‘Yeah.’

The headphones went back in, and she returned to her books. He’d have to do better than that to win over this otherworldly woman. Her skin glowed, her red hair tumbled and her brown eyes shone like stars. She seemed more elfish than human, and if she’d told him she was really from Lothlórien, he might have believed her.

He opened his book on optical measurement of subatomic particles, but couldn’t concentrate on a single word. He pretended to read the pages, but in truth he was just turning them so as not to appear weird.

They spent hours sitting side by side as though locked in a competition to see who would betray their union first. Night fell, and the massive stained-glass windows sprang to life with rich colour, illuminated by spotlights that hung outside the building. Glazed saints performed wondrous deeds all around them.

Elliot heard a steady stream of people leave until he was sure he and Jessica were the only people in the building. He checked his phone. It was a little after ten, but the sidelong glances and lingering looks told him he needed to stay.

Finally, when the grand old church was still, and he felt he couldn’t breathe air that was so heavy with expectation, she removed her headphones and said, ‘So, I was thinking we could go and hang out in my room. I have some wine.’

‘OK,’ he replied instantly, and a moment later he kicked himself for not playing it cool and taking his time to respond.

But she didn’t care and was grinning at him almost as foolishly as he was at her.

They left their books and walked through the library side by side. Their fingers touched and he was shaken by tremors of excitement, which developed into a full-blown quake when she took his hand. They said nothing as they passed the high shelves laden with books, and still no words came as they skipped down the stairs and hurried into the churchyard outside. The cool night was still, as though the world was holding its breath.

The gate was always locked after ten, and students had to get out through a maze of corridors that ran through the college. A door in the north-east corner of the churchyard offered access to the corridor, and they were about to start along the path that lay between ancient gravestones when Elliot sensed movement out of the corner of his eye.