‘You’re very kind,’ she said, smiling up into his face and parting her lips to tell him her name, but as she did so Zadie entered the room. Her long hair trailed over her bare shoulders and her skin glowed. She grinned at Chloe. ‘Oh, good. You two found each other. I wanted you to meet.’ She pulled her lithe body up on to tiptoes and kissed the boy on the lips. The realization of who he was came crashing down around Chloe’s shoulders. It was as if someone had dropped an ice cube down her back. She fixed her face into a smile, horrified at her own reaction.

‘We just met,’ said Max, crossing the room to get another champagne glass. He set it on the marble countertop with a clink and took Chloe’s hand in his.

‘I’m Chloe,’ she said.

‘It’s nice to meet you, Chloe. I heard you came to Zadie’s rescue the other day.’

He picked up the bottle, filled three glasses and handed one to each of the girls. His eyes were locked into Zadie’s. How could a gesture that innocent feel so intimate? ‘Here’s to Chloe,’ he said, raising his glass. ‘Our saviour.’

‘Our saviour,’ repeated Zadie, with a grin.

6

Now

‘We’re late,’ said Rav, sighing and looking at his phone. He’d been putting it back into his jacket pocket then taking it out again for the last twenty minutes, as if staring at the time had any influence on how late it was or how slowly the traffic crawled.

‘Not very,’ Chloe replied. She looked to the front seat of the car, searching for the time on the dashboard, hoping it disputed the numbers on Rav’s screen. The driver was playing Magic FM, the ‘Greatest Hits of the Eighties’, but he’d turned the volume down so low she could hardly hear it. She never understood why people did that.

‘Half an hour late,’ said Rav. He sounded genuinely worried. Something about the rawness in his voice pulled at her, making her want to comfort him.

‘I thought he said seven thirty for eight?’ Her voice was bright and cheerful, though she wasn’t sure why. How had it become her responsibility to cheer Rav up about going to a dinner she had tried to refuse to attend?

Rav looked away, staring out of the window at the bumper-to-bumper cars. Chloe could have told him they’d have made better time getting from north London to south-west London if they’d taken the Tube. But there was no point. He already knew that. He’d probably be ashamed of himself for thinking that getting a taxi across London was an impressive way to arrive, as if Max gave a shit how they got there, as if he would even notice. She didn’t need to say any of it. Rav would already be bullying himself internally about it.