That had been over a week ago. They had said they would discuss it. Now Lucy was bringing it up at the party.

‘So what do you think we should do?’ Lucy asked, reaching out to hold Quinn’s hands. ‘I think you should ask to be referred to someone else. Carol’s supposed to be the best when it comes to relationships, so I’d rather we saved her for us, don’t you agree?’

‘It’s freezing out here. Let’s go back in and enjoy the party. We can talk about it tomorrow,’ Quinn said, pulling Lucy towards him and kissing her on the forehead.

Lucy forced a smile and then turned to open the sliding door back to the party.

‘Fine, but we need to decide. Now, make sure you mingle, you should talk to everyone here for at least three minutes, then everyone feels that they’ve seen you.’

Quinn looked around the room. Who did he want to talk to? Over by the bar were the few school friends he still kept up with: Matt, Jonesy, Deepak. On the dance floor, his work colleagues and a handful of faces from UCL and Cambridge days. Mike was busy chatting up Lucy’s friend, Flaky Amy. Three minutes. Could anyone really see him in three minutes? Would anyone see him in three hundred minutes? In a room full of his friends, Quinn didn’t think he’d ever felt so lonely.

Quinn watched Lucy strutting over to reprimand a waiter for standing idle. The man looked terrified and launched into action, knocking straight into a girl walking towards him. The girl had brown curly hair and was dressed in a strangely casual tank top. The plainness of her clothes only made it more apparent how striking she was. The waiter dropped his tray and the canapés flew into the air. Quinn watched the girl with the curly hair stop to help the waiter pick them up, apologising as though it was her fault. She got down on her hands and knees and helped brush off the goat’s cheese stuck to the waiter’s tie. Then she cleaned his glasses on her top. Quinn smiled to himself as he watched the scene. He didn’t know anyone here who would help a waiter like that.

The girl stood up and brushed herself down, then picked a piece of goat’s cheese from her hair. The waiter scurried away and she stood there, alone, watching the party as though she wasn’t a part of it. Something about this girl didn’t fit here; she stood out like a swan in a pond full of geese.