Finding her resolve, she got to her feet. ‘I’m going to …’ She tailed off and the blonde girls tumbled back from the bathroom, laughing and sniffing. They sat either side of Max, even closer than before, and picked up their glasses. Either Max assumed he had missed the end of her sentence or he didn’t care where she was going. Either way, he had turned his face from her and it felt like the moment when the warm sun which was on your back moved behind a cloud and your skin seemed to glow with cold. She could see what it was that Zadie found so deeply compelling about him.

She danced. Met more of Max’s friends. Drank more. Pretended she wasn’t frustrated that Zadie had invited her and now was nowhere to be seen. Told herself that she was having fun. All the way home, putting one numb foot in front of the other and walking through the freezing wind because she didn’t have any more money for a taxi, she tried to shake off the desire that had settled into the pit of her stomach, but she couldn’t.

When she got back to her room her feet were so cold she couldn’t move her toes. She stood, her back against the door, and to her own shock put her hand between her legs, thinking of Rav’s smirk outside the bar, of Max’s eyes on her bare legs at the club. She came sharply, moments later, then stood, dazed and scandalized by her own behaviour. She hung up her dress, washed her face and hands in the little sink at the corner of the room, rubbing her fingers until they were red. Then she put on a pair of sensible pyjamas, turned off the light and tried desperately to convince herself that what she had just done meant nothing.

The next day Chloe woke to find that she had four texts. Her stomach flipped, and before she could tell herself not to think it she had brewed a fantasy about a message from Rav. Or Zadie. Which would be better? Which would make her happier? She tried to quash the voice in the back of her mind that was whispering Max’s name.

She needn’t have worried. The first one was from the phone company. The second was from Lissy: ‘i’m so sorry I was such a mess last night, thank you SO SO SO MUCH for taking me to the lounge!’ It seemed she couldn’t remember that she didn’t get in, which was a relief. Chloe could pretend that she hadn’t ditched her and sent her home alone, drunk in a taxi, and Lissy could believe that she had gone to the most exclusive club for miles around.