And the simple fact was, he wasn’t interested. Kelsey was the only girl for him.

Glancing over her shoulder, Abs saw Deano leering at him. Winking, as if to say, you’re in.

So Abs was grateful when another pub regular came over to ask for a selfie.

‘Of course, mate,’ Abs said, and turned away from the girl quickly. He sensed her hanging around behind him, waiting patiently for him to give her all his attention, but Abs made a point of chatting to the guy. And when he finally looked round, he was relieved to see Rhiannon had gone. He couldn’t see her anywhere.

The laughter and chat continued into the early hours because the landlord had a lock-in. Against his better judgement, Abs was convinced to do some shots – half the time he didn’t even know what was in the glass – and he had no idea what the time was when he, Jez, Tony and Deano finally stumbled into the cold night.

‘Jesus, it’s freezing,’ complained Jez, pulling his coat around him. It was pitch-black because there was no street lighting, and it was spitting rain again.

They squinted up the lane towards the village and then across the field. Abs was pissed, he wasn’t cut out for drinking, and couldn’t make head nor tail of where he was. If it was somewhere in Essex or London, he’d just stick his arm out and hail a cab, or call an Uber. Most probably he’d get a big discount, or let off the fare completely, because of who he was.

‘Any ideas how to get back?’ asked Jez.

‘Haven’t got a scooby,’ said Tony.

‘What a shithole.’ Deano gave a drunken sneer. He was swaying, but still swigging from a bottle of Scotch he’d nicked from behind the bar, to Abs’s annoyance.

‘I don’t know how you can still drink,’ he said, incredulous.

‘All this fresh air has sobered me up, innit.’ Deano let out a big belch. ‘And I don’t have to diet like some celeb tart.’

They trudged along a grassy verge, which was wet and slippery. When he looked up at the night sky, Abs saw a blanket of stars and tried to find the Great Bear, which was the only constellation he knew. Trouble is, the more he looked, the more the stars started to scatter and drift.

Jez stopped in the middle of the road. ‘It’s not this way.’

‘It definitely is.’

‘It bloody ain’t,’ insisted Deano.

‘I can show you,’ said a voice from the darkness, and they saw the dark outline of a figure sitting on a stile.

Abs stepped forward and recognized Rhiannon, the girl from the pub.

‘I’ll get you home,’ she said. ‘And then we can all party.’

7

Sasha was all elbows after lunch and knocked an M&S bottle of orange juice all over her desk.

‘Sugar,’ she hissed, tearing open a packet of tissues in a frantic race against time to stop the sticky liquid from reaching her keyboard and paperwork. She moved folders and documents, mopping up the spill as best she could, but was unable to stop the juice dripping over the edge of the desk.