‘Can’t I?’ said Quinn, his voice an even deeper drawl. ‘I have very persuasive powers.’ He peeled the banana and held a piece to her mouth. Minnie pretended some supernatural force was taking over her body.

‘Oh, no, not the banana!’ she said breathily, putting her mouth around the chunk he was holding out for her.

She started eating it with her eyes closed, and when she opened them, their eyes met. He was looking at her wide-eyed. Oh god, how had this suddenly got so weird? She’d stayed for a glass for wine, and now they were engaged in some kind of sexy fruit-themed role play. Quinn cleared his throat, and slowly moved to his side of the sofa. Minnie swallowed the piece of banana in her mouth and stood up.

‘Sorry, I got carried away,’ Quinn said awkwardly.

‘It’s fine. I should um … I should get home anyway.’ She paused, looking down and remembering she was wearing his clothes. ‘Can I borrow these to get home? My land legs only last until midnight and then I’ll just be thrashing around in some Tube stop somewhere, begging someone to throw water on me. I can post them back to you tomorrow.’

‘Of course,’ said Quinn, ‘or I can pick them up sometime.’

He found Minnie a bag for her mermaid costume and ordered her an Uber. At the front door he paused.

‘I promise not to force-feed you bananas next time we see each other,’ he said. The muscle in his jaw flexed and he dropped his gaze to the floor.

‘Lucky for you I like bananas,’ said Minnie, daring to make eye contact when he looked up again.

She felt as though Quinn wanted to say something else but didn’t know how.

‘You’re great company, Minnie. I know we’ve had a few false starts, but I’d – I’d like us to be friends,’ he said, looking at her hopefully. ‘I need more laughter in my life.’

‘Court jester at your service,’ she said, crossing her leg in front of her and giving a bow.

‘I don’t mean it like that,’ he said, reaching out to touch her arm. He looked worried he had offended her. ‘I just can’t handle anything more at the moment.’

‘Of course.’ She reached out to give him a reciprocal tap on the arm. ‘Any time.’

He opened the door for her, the cab was waiting outside. She hovered in the doorway. Why was she hovering? He’d think she was hovering because she was waiting for him to kiss her and he had just established that she was firmly in the friend zone. So why was she still standing here? She jumped down the steps, tripped and stumbled on the bottom stair.

‘Are you OK?’ he called after her.

‘Fine, totally fine. See you later friend,’ she said with a backwards wave.

21 June 2020