Now it was his turn. ‘I always liked Snow White,’ he said, through the dope smoke.

‘And you just called Sienna gay?’ said Dan, and they all erupted in stoned giggles. ‘OK, Mr Hard Man, which one do you want?’

‘“Whistle While You Work”.’

‘Oh, the one with all the birds and the animals,’ said Sam, smiling dreamily as she accepted the joint from him. ‘I always loved that one too.’

‘Actually,’ said Mikey, ‘you look a bit like Snow White, Sam, with your dark hair and enormous eyes …’

‘Except Snow White had enormous blue eyes, shit-for-brains,’ said Dan as he scrolled down the YouTube list. Then he started laughing. ‘Well, for some reason the only version of “Whistle While You Work” I can find is in Dutch, with subtitles. Will that do?’

‘Oh, yeah!’ They all laughed in agreement, and soon they were singing along to Snow White, trying to make the English subtitles sound Dutch, giggling like loons. Sam couldn’t remember a time she felt happier.

‘Oh, this is so much fun,’ she said, when the song came to an end. ‘Thanks for making me feel better. It’s really lonely in halls at the moment, and after today I don’t know how much more I can stand doing modelling.’

‘I wish you’d give it up,’ said Sienna. ‘Surely you can get another student loan? I can easily lend you some dosh to tide you over in the meantime.’

Sienna never tired of offering Sam money, and Sam never tired of refusing.

‘Thanks, but you know I can’t. It’s going to take me years to pay off the student loan I’ve already taken out, anyway. And I’ve got to pay next term’s hall fees any minute, too. It’s going to be even worse there without you next term, Sienna. I’m dreading Josh coming back.’

Sienna had nearly completed on her purchase of a million-pound flat in Notting Hill. She’d have offered Sam a room in an instant, but her canny self-made father, always aware of people taking advantage, had insisted she bought a flat with only one bedroom. His hard-earned filthy lucre was not to be used to support hangers-on.

‘I hope you’re not going to let Josh be too vile, without me to stick up for you,’ Sienna was starting, when Dan interrupted.

‘I can’t believe how fucking stupid we’re all being. Why don’t you move in here, Sambo? You can have Ross’s old room. It’s a tiny shithole, mind, but dirt cheap. Then you can save on next term’s rent, stop doing so much of that crap modelling, and concentrate on your studies.’

Sam was staring at him, delight starting to creep over her face.

‘It’ll be shit, like, having you around.’ Dan grinned. ‘But you can earn your keep doing a bit of cooking and cleaning …’

‘Can I? Can I really?’ Her head swivelled from Dan to Mikey, both of whom were smiling and nodding. Sienna, from her feline position on Mikey’s lap, was giving her a wink and a double thumbs-up.