‘I know. I feel like such a pleb.’

‘Join the club.’

‘I keep trying to. No one will nominate me.’

‘I’d offer to help you, Paul, but I’ve never been a member of a club in my life.’

‘The first rule of the club is there is no club.’

He laughed. ‘I’m in the Illuminati. I thought you meant the Groucho.’

Behind him I saw Amy arrive in the front of the shop and look around. I waved at her and she came over and hugged me.

‘Andrew, this is my sister, Amy. Amy, this is my new friend, Andrew Lancaster, a serious intellectual and historian.’

‘Delighted to meet you, Amy. And historian. What an intro.’

‘It’s nice to meet you too,’ she said.

‘Amy’s an intellectual too, of course,’ I said. ‘She’s a big fan of Emily’s novel. Amy, this is Emily’s boyfriend.’

‘Oh! That’s nice. I’m actually a failed artist who sells T-shirts at Brick Lane market.’

‘That’s exactly what a real intellectual would say,’ said Andrew. ‘You should never trust a self-declared intellectual.’

‘Seriously, though, Amy’s very clever. She’s a property guru too.’

‘Paul likes to patronise me, when he’s not accusing me of being a greedy landlord.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that, Amy,’ said Andrew. ‘It sounds like you have the same unfortunate dynamic with him that I have with my daughter. She’s supposed to be here but I can’t see her yet. Of course, she’s thirty-three years younger than me, and Paul’s…?’

‘Over two years older than me.’

‘Let me get you a glass of wine,’ Andrew said.

‘Oh, go on, I’ll have an extremely small glass of white, if you’re offering.’

‘I am,’ he said and went to get it.

‘What’s the deal there?’ she asked me.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Are you two really friends?’

‘No. I’m friends with his girlfriend. I don’t mind him, though.’

‘He seems very charming.’

‘He seems fond of younger women. How are you, anyway? Have you decided whether to tell the Bristolian?’

We looked down at her stomach.

‘Not yet. I think I will. I was just… I wondered if… I’m just, oh, let’s talk about it later. This is too hectic.’

A bearish man brushed past us and we watched him lumber towards Emily. She raised her hands in surprise and rushed over to him. I watched her cling on to him in a way she had never clung to me.

‘Who’s he?’ said Andrew, returning with glasses of wine.

‘I don’t know, but he’s very tall and rugged,’ said Amy.

‘You’ll make me jealous,’ he said, handing her a glass.

We continued to watch this man crush Emily against his chest. ‘Do you want to come outside for a bit?’ I asked Amy. ‘I need a cigarette.’