The bus contained the usual smorgasbord of London nightlife: an elderly man in a battered duffel coat with a tinsel-collared Jack Russell on his lap, a group of teenage girls all in short skirts, long boots and fake eyelashes, laughing over their phones, and a middle-aged couple having a disagreement about the best route to Covent Garden.

‘Your lucky day,’ said the man with the dog, giving her a wink. He had kind, creased eyes and a pointy face that reminded Minnie of a leprechaun.

‘Sorry?’ Minnie said.

‘Making the bus,’ he said.

‘Oh yes, well I won’t count myself lucky yet, I’m trying to get to Westminster Pier by ten o’clock.’ Perhaps it was the man’s bright, curious eyes, or perhaps it was the adrenaline of making the bus, but she found herself saying more. ‘There’s a man I’m in love with who’s leaving on a boat in thirty minutes.’

What was it about tonight, and oversharing with complete strangers?

The man ruffled his dog’s head. ‘Well that’s a reason to run for a bus if ever I heard one,’ he said. ‘Boris here thinks so too.’

The bus pulled in at the next stop, and the engine went dead.

‘Sorry folks, just pausing for a change of driver,’ came a voice over the tannoy.

Everyone groaned. Minnie jumped up and ran to the front.

‘Sorry, sir, but can you tell me how long that will take, please? It’s just I’m in a real rush.’

‘Aren’t we all luv,’ said a blonde woman in a high-visibility jacket, white shirt and bus driver’s hat. She was holding a clipboard in her hand, and she looked Minnie up and down as she got onto the bus.

‘Oh great, are you the new driver?’ Minnie asked.

‘She needs to get to Westminster Pier to tell a guy she loves him,’ shouted the human leprechaun from further down the bus.

‘Well, we’ll get there when we get there. Move yourself, Hamish,’ said the woman, moving to one side so that the large, bearded Scot could get out of the driver’s seat. Then she called out to the whole bus, ‘The bus will be waiting here for ten minutes to regulate the service on this route. If you are in a hurry, you should get off and catch the bus behind, which will be arriving in seven and a half minutes.’

She gave Minnie a tight grin, flashing a gold tooth, and took her seat in the driver’s cabin. People on the bus groaned and started to disembark.

‘Oh no, can’t we just have an unregulated service tonight?’ Minnie pleaded.

‘Shaylene’s a stickler for the rules,’ said the burly male driver, who was filling in some kind of log on the clipboard.

Minnie decided she would need to appeal to Shaylene’s romantic sensibilities.