‘Yup, that’s me.’

‘I just wanted to say –’ The boys were quite spectacularly drunk, Poppy now realized, but carried on smiling regardless – ‘that we all jerk off to your show, like EVERY THURSDAY!’

As both boys collapsed in hysterics, Damian jumped to his feet.

‘How dare you say that to my wife?’

‘It’s a compliment, dude,’ said one of them, setting his friend off into even greater paroxysms of mirth. Poppy bit her lip to stop giggling and making Damian even angrier.

‘Well, thank you very much,’ she said. ‘I hope you all get a lot of sleep on Fridays, and rest your no doubt weary wrists.’

That took the jock-jerks by surprise and, after a beat, faces wreathed in smiles, they started high-fiving both her and Damian, slapping them both on the back for good measure.

‘High five! Respect, man! Your wife is one cool chick.’

As Damian high-fived them back, a reluctant smile crept across his face.

‘Sorry about that. I love you,’ said Poppy, once the jock-jerks had ambled off down the beach, chortling to one another.

‘I’m sorry too. In fact, I should probably feel flattered that twats like that want to wank over my wife. Especially as I get to have the real thing.’ The previous evening, with nothing else to do, they had shagged one another senseless, giggling as Marty and Eleanor’s sex noises drowned theirs out over the salty night air.

Their food arrived – broiled lobster for Damian and clam chowder for Poppy – and they ordered another bottle of wine.

‘Sorry I’ve been a bit of a cunt recently,’ said Damian.

‘Don’t be silly. You could never be as much of a cunt as I was last year. I know it’s tough at the moment, but the screenplay is brilliant. You know it and I know it – it’s just a matter of time.’

‘Yes, you’re right. Sorry again, Pops. Let’s just enjoy this lovely evening. Oh, my God, look!’

Damian pointed over the deck and they both watched as a family of deer strolled by on the beach. Under the clear, starlit sky, the sight was magical.

‘You don’t get that in Hoxton.’

Damian leant across the table to kiss Poppy and she kissed him back, happy and relieved. When he got up to go to the loo, she picked up a celeb gossip magazine that somebody had left on the bench next to her. Flicking through it, something stopped her in her tracks.

HOLLYWOOD BROMANCE? ran the headline. Are über-cool Jack Meadows and hot hot HOT new Brit actor Ben Jones the new Entourage boys on the LA block? While filming their hotly Oscar-tipped new movie, Beyond the Sea, these guys seem to have struck a friendship the like of which has not been seen since Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Watch this space, movie-lovers!

And there, in a double-page spread, were photo after photo of Ben and Jack – the lovely Jack who’d been so nice to her at her Prohibition party. God, they looked gorgeous, the photomontage comprising black-tie events, casual coffees on Melrose, hiking in the Hollywood hills, even frolicking in the surf together, both men’s chests impressively worked-out. Jack was slightly taller than Ben, and his curly black hair contrasted beautifully with Ben’s streaky light brown/dark blond locks. In every photo they were laughing, the rapport between them patently obvious.