I don’t even manage a week before it all gets too much. I hadn’t made any promises about staying for the whole of the holidays because of work. Mum’s already got plans to spend the whole of Christmas Day helping at the soup kitchen in town, so I don’t have to feel guilty about dropping her in it and leaving her alone. She seems pretty easy-going about it.

‘You could always stay here for Christmas, darling,’ she says, standing in the doorway watching as I shove things back into the overnight bag. ‘I’ll be back by six. Or you could come and help. They might need a spare nurse.’

I shake my head. ‘It’s all right, honestly. I need to go and say goodbye properly to the guys in the house and get myself settled in the new place.’

‘What about Christmas?’ She looked concerned. ‘I hate to think of you sitting there in that place all by yourself when there’s a perfectly good bed down here. And I’ve got the Bridge Club gang coming around on Boxing Day for a buffet.’

‘I won’t be alone, honestly.’

I don’t have a clue if anyone’s going to be around over Christmas. I’m half thinking I might just pick up some agency shifts and get a bit of money behind me before term starts. Thanks to Becky’s ridiculously low rent, I’ve managed to keep a hold of a decent chunk of my back-up savings, but once I move they’re going to be dwindling away rapidly. If I work all over the holidays, not only will I have a decent chunk of money behind me, but I’ll have managed to avoid any awkward encounters with Jess and James too. Bonus. I’m a genius.

I head back home – well, home for now – to Albany Road and manage to lose the time leading up to Christmas in work and revision. Rob’s working really long hours, Emma’s nowhere to be seen, I think because we’ve both been skirting around each other a bit, and Becky’s gone on a trip up north to see her parents, so there’s a weird sense of anti-climax.

As I get to my room, I get a call to say that Abeo, Oli and I passed the landlord’s reference checks without event. It feels a bit strange and final. We just need to sort a hire van so we can move in three days before Christmas, and then nip to IKEA and pick up the essentials. The thing I’d taken for granted living in Becky’s place was that the house was fully furnished, with everything her grandparents had left there. We didn’t have to buy so much as a can opener. I think I took a lot of things for granted in Albany Road.

Jess