Unplugging her phone from the charger, she half hopes by some miracle to see a message from Satnam, whilst knowing that miracles only happen in films. Satnam’s phone sits charged and locked. She tries a few number combinations and, failing to open it, slides the device into her pocket. In the kitchen she puts the kettle on to boil. Digging out a filter from the drawer beside the fridge, she measures two scoops of ground coffee onto a scale, then tips it into the AeroPress, taps the dead silverfish from an old Games of Thrones mug and sets the press over the lip. Scenes from last summer in Hackney flicker in her mind: Sat and Luke and Honor sitting under the cratch cover at the ship’s bow eating Honor’s spag bol, watching the swifts swooping to catch mosquitoes dancing above the water. Sat and Nevis sitting on the bank of the canal spotting kingfishers while Luke and Honor shared a spliff on deck. Returning in the dimming light and accidentally disturbing a troupe of cygnets bracketed by their anxious parents. What else can she recall? Satnam was struggling academically back then. There was coursework over the summer which Nevis helped her complete. Her grades weren’t disastrous but she had twice flunked maths and had just completed a remedial course. Satnam hadn’t told Narinder and Bikram that. She said once that if she failed to shine academically, her parents would put more and more pressure on her to drop out and get married. They had picked a suitable candidate. Their discovery that she was seeing Luke most likely exacerbated the situation. She didn’t talk about it much, but Nevis knew that Narinder and Bikram didn’t like Satnam dating period, let alone dating a gora from outside the culture. When she’d said she’d had enough, did she mean she’d tired of fighting her parents, grown weary of having one foot in each culture and forever being caught between the two? Had she told Luke that their relationship had no future? Is that why Luke had dumped her back in November? Had she decided to go back home and marry? Is that what she meant when she’d said she was thinking of leaving Avon?

If that was so, then why had she made such an effort to improve her grades this year? Why had she told Nevis that as a result her parents had eased up on her about getting married and begun to be more focused on seeing her graduate and getting a good job? And why had she drunk a bottle of vodka, downed a bunch of pills and taken herself off to the Clifton Suspension Bridge?