‘I’m coming!’ Minnie yelled, ‘just on the loo.’

She gave Quinn an ‘oh my god, sorry’ look as she quickly pulled her top back over her head. She also tried to convey an ‘I’ll get rid of them and we can pick this up from right where we left off’ with her eyes, but that was a harder emotion to condense into an eye roll.

‘Hi,’ Minnie said, opening the door to find both her parents standing on the doorstep.

‘You are here,’ said her dad. ‘We saw you’d taken all your boxes while we were out and we thought you might need a hand settling in.’

Her mother bustled past her carrying bags of shopping.

‘I bought you some essentials. Can’t have you moving into a bare kitch … Oh.’ She held a hand to her chest in surprise when she saw Quinn emerging from the living room, his hair dishevelled.

‘Hi Mrs Cooper,’ Quinn, said, clearing his throat and raising a hand in greeting.

‘Quinn helped me move,’ Minnie explained.

‘I see,’ said her mother, turning to Minnie and staring at her with wide, bulging eyes.

‘We won’t get in the way,’ said Minnie’s dad. ‘We just didn’t want you to be on your own in a strange flat with no food in.’

‘Your father thought we should check out the neighbourhood. Not quite as nice as your last one, is it?’ said her mum.

‘This lock on the front door is no good; they always play up, these ones do. You got to have a double lock on a ground floor. Get your landlord to fix you a new one,’ said her dad, locking and unlocking the front door to demonstrate.

‘Aren’t these impractical,’ said her mum, eyeing up the tower of kitchen cupboards. ‘Now, we won’t stay, but I am gasping for a cuppa, have you got teabags unpacked yet?’

Minnie’s parents took themselves off to inspect the rest of the flat, while Minnie started scrabbling around in boxes looking for teabags.

‘Is this the whole of it?’ called her mum from the living room, then, ‘Sweet Jesus!’ as she walked into the bedroom. ‘Did someone die in here?’

‘You sure this is better than my clock room, Minnie Moo?’ called her dad.

Minnie carried a tray full of teas through to the sitting room. Her parents had made themselves comfortable on the sofa, while Quinn sat on the floor. As Minnie put the tray down on the coffee table, she noticed her black bra on the floor behind the door and tried to subtly scoot it beneath the sofa with her foot.

Minnie’s mother frowned at the tea that had been placed in front of her.

‘Use one bag between the four, did you? I suppose you’ll be making economies now you have to buy your own.’

Minnie’s father shifted uncomfortably on the sofa.