‘Yes,’ I say. ‘But the murder was … well, it didn’t look like he was killing her. The way the puppeteer worked the puppet’s hands made it look like he was embracing her, like he was, in some weird way, saving her.’

‘Saving her from herself, I suppose,’ he says, fixing his brown eyes on me.

‘Yes, exactly that,’ I say excitedly.

It’s a relief to talk about the show like this. I love Lottie but she can be so fixed in her likes and dislikes that sometimes I feel I have to adapt my own to suit her.

‘I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to theatre,’ he says, placing his beer bottle on the bar. ‘Though it’s the look of the stage that really intrigues me. I studied set design at college before changing tack and going into art direction. That dress you’re wearing, for example. It caught my eye immediately because it brings out the shade of your eyes. Blue is definitely your colour – Christ, that probably makes me sound rather vacuous.’

‘Not at all,’ I say, my stomach fluttering as I look down at my dress, a pale-blue Zara number I’ve had for years. ‘I know a lot of people think that about my work in cosmetics. People view the beauty industry as something frivolous and lightweight, but for me it’s about storytelling, creating different characters for each occasion.’

‘It sounds like you love your job,’ says Connor with a smile. ‘You’re lucky. There are so many people trapped in jobs and lives that they hate.’

‘You’re right,’ I say, feeling myself relax. ‘Before I got the job at Luna London I’d spent years temping. God, some of those places were really dire. I remember one time I was working on the reception desk of a marketing company in the City and the boss asked me to sew a button on his shirt.’

‘Christ, what a dinosaur,’ he says, shaking his head.

‘Yep,’ I say, remembering those years. Jobs like that had left my confidence battered. ‘It was the last straw. A couple of days later I saw the job ad for Luna London and decided it was now or never.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, I’ve always been rather shy,’ I say. ‘When I was a kid I used to be scared of meeting new people, putting myself out there, even when it was for my own good. I realized I was still doing that after university. I was playing it safe, not daring to go for what I wanted in case I made a fool of myself.’

‘I understand that,’ he says, taking a sip of beer. ‘Those first few years after uni are pretty tough. You have to develop a thick skin.’