‘She’s got it bad, Minnie. She zoomed out way too far on Google Maps and now she can’t get back.’ Alan shook his head. ‘She needs to watch a bit more X Factor or something. Anything on ITV will sort you out, Bev. Cut down on the BBC4 for a bit.’

‘Look, I don’t think any of us should be thinking too much about our place in the grand scheme of things,’ said Minnie. ‘I’m sure Brian Cox didn’t mean to make you question the validity of your existence. Even if you don’t invent a spaceship to Mars, that’s not to say you aren’t leading a rich and fulfilling life, Bev. Your husband loves you, your family love you, we all love you. What more can you hope to achieve in life?’

‘Wise words,’ nodded Alan, loading pie boxes into his pallet. ‘All you can hope for is to do more good than harm in this life, that’s my motto. I’ve already sunk three boats in my lifetime, so I figure I’ve got at least four boats to float till I’m up.’

‘You’re floating quite a lot of boats at the London Fields Social Club from what I hear, Alan,’ said Minnie, giving him an exaggerated wink.

‘What are you all gossiping about?’ asked Fleur.

Fleur was incapable of staying at her desk if she thought something interesting was being said in the kitchen.

‘Bev’s existential crisis,’ said Alan.

‘Alan’s elderly admirers,’ said Minnie.

‘Alan’s a Scorpio; Scorpios always get loads of attention,’ said Fleur, twiddling her hair and pulling a stool up to the worktop.

‘I don’t want to think like this,’ Bev said mournfully, unpacking more packets of flour and lining them up on the counter. ‘But now I’ve thought it, I can’t turn it off. Like, I was in the shower the other day and I was looking at this shampoo bottle my daughter bought me. It was made of real nice-feeling matte plastic, like someone had taken a lot of time over it. This bottle that was only made to hold shampoo for a month or two and it will probably be around on this planet longer than me. I’ll be dead in thirty years, and my kids might remember me, maybe even my grandkids, but then what? There will be no record I was ever here. But this shampoo bottle will still be existing somewhere with its list of ingredients and its lovely matte finish.’

Fleur, Alan and Minnie all stared silently at Bev.

‘You got to stop having such long showers, Bev,’ said Alan, lifting up his pallet of pies and heading for the door.