He laughed, deep and melodic. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Sam, but no, you don’t quite rate high enough on my obsessions for a good stalking. Almost, but not quite.’ I supposed he thought that smile could charm all the girls. I wondered when he’d realise it wasn’t having the desired effect on me. ‘I’d arranged to meet some people here, but they haven’t turned up yet. I see Maggie’s over there.’ He waved to her and she gave a cheerful little wave back, before he returned his attention to me. His voice changed to his I’m-all-concerned one and his eyes focused in like I was the only person in the room. It suddenly felt a lot warmer in here. ‘How did your interview go? I hope they were sensible and didn’t give you a hard time.’ The crush of the crowd meant he was leaning over me, close enough for me to smell him. He had something nice on, but a bit too much of it. ‘Oh, you’d better watch your butt, it’s sticking out – someone can’t get past, behind you.’

‘It’s not that big,’ I said as I shuffled forward a bit, to let the guy past. Unfortunately, Paul got a shove from behind at the same time, forcing him forward into me. His body pushed against the glasses, the contents sloshed up and I watched aghast as two crimson stains ran down my best merino top in the most prominent of places. Paul’s hands grabbed first onto my shoulders to stabilise himself, and then behind my elbows to rescue the glasses.

‘Oh, bloody hell,’ I said. ‘Look what you’ve gone and done.’ Like I needed this right now. ‘Can’t you be more bloody careful?’

‘Shit, do you want me to wipe your boobs?’ he asked as he let go of me and looked around for something to repair the damage.

‘Nuh, uh, don’t you dare. You’ve done enough already.’ I thrust a glass into one of his hands, grabbed the serviette he’d swiped off a table, and then handed him the other glass. I made a futile effort at mopping up the spillage.

‘Hey, that wasn’t my fault,’ he said. ‘Between your bum, boobs and the crowd in here, it’s no wonder we got jostled.’

I sucked in a big breath. I didn’t think they were that big and how dare he talk like that. My internal barometer was on the rise again, assisted by the pressure of a truly awful day.