‘My cat … my catalogue.’ Minnie suddenly remembered she wasn’t allowed pets under the terms of her lease. ‘My catalogue will have arrived. I’m just excited – do you ever get like that about catalogues? January sales, whoop-whoop … ’

Mr Buchanan turned and looked up at the window. She didn’t know if he’d seen the swish of grey tail before Lucky ducked out of view.

‘I see,’ said Mr Buchanan, cutting her off. ‘It doesn’t sound like you are in a position to be shopping, Miss Cooper.’ He blinked his small eyes at her. ‘You’re due to renew your lease on the first, that’s today.’ He paused, ‘I don’t feel—’

Minnie could see where this was going and held up a finger to stop him.

‘Wait! Mr Buchanan, please wait, whatever you might be about to say, please can we not have this conversation now? I know this sounds crazy, but bad things happen to me on the first of January, so if there are any major decisions to be made about me continuing to live here, I wonder if I could call you tomorrow when it’s not the first and, um, well, just don’t make your mind up today. I know I’ve been a bit of a crap tenant, but just give me one more day.’

Mr Buchanan’s head was making very small movements from side to side. His lips were moving as though Minnie were a book he was trying to read and she was scrolling through the pages too fast for him.

‘You want me to ask you to move out tomorrow?’ he asked, peering at her in bemusement.

‘No, no, I don’t want you to ask me to move out at all. Just sleep on it, Mr Buchanan, decide tomorrow. I might not look like such a bad tenant tomorrow.’ Minnie gave him the most charming smile she could muster.

‘You have a month’s notice, Miss Cooper,’ he said, handing her the spare key. ‘But since you asked nicely, I’ll wait until tomorrow to formalise it in writing.’

Inside her apartment, Minnie, dropped her bag on the floor and pulled Lucky into her arms.

‘Oh Lucky, it’s so cold in here.’

Lucky kicked out of her arms and sprang through to the kitchen. ‘OK, fine, I’ll get you food.’

Minnie pulled out half a tin of cat food from the fridge door and decanted it into a saucer. Lucky devoured most of it, then he jumped up onto the counter and up again to the top of the fridge. ‘Oh, you found the only warm patch in the place, hey? You won’t come keep me warm next door?’ Lucky tucked his head into his body – a definitive ‘no’.