The gray and red lobby decor, the flower photographs on the walls . . . Separated from reception by a glass partition, there’s the same skinny rectangle of a bar, where you’d be foolish to sit and have a drink if you didn’t want the bar staff to overhear your entire conversation, not to mention the ticking and squelching of your internal organs. The room can’t be more than three feet wide. No one’s in there today; I can’t imagine that anyone ever sits at the bar, on one of the twelve high red-topped stools arranged in a perfectly straight line. Who would want to be stared at by people like me, waiting to be checked in?

There’s only one receptionist on duty, and the most tedious man in the world is in front of me. He seems determined to ask about everything a guest at a hotel might conceivably ask about: Wi-Fi, breakfast times, gym times, the business center, newspapers, alarm calls, does his room have a minibar. I suppress the urge to scream at him, “How can you want and need so much?” He even has an annoying name that he has to spell out letter by letter because it’s so unusual. U-s-k-a-l-i-s. He pushed in front of me on the hotel steps and actually jogged to reception in order to get there before me, the creep.

While I wait, I keep turning around to see if anyone walks through the hotel’s main door. All the way here from King’s Cross Station—a fifteen-minute walk—I sensed that someone was following me, but there was no sign of anyone. No streaked-haired man, no blue BMW, no one who stopped walking when I did and lowered their eyes.

I tell myself I’m being paranoid. No one’s followed me here. No one knows where I am and what I’m doing apart from King Edward. I told Adam I was going to London to try and sort things out with Melissa. I even told him which hotel I’d be staying in and that I didn’t know exactly when I’d be back; perhaps I’d need to stay overnight. “I’m not going to her house,” I said. “I want to be absolutely sure I don’t run into Lee. I want to invite Melissa to my territory to talk, instead of being on hers like I usually am—where she can kick me out whenever it suits her. This time, I’m going to set the agenda and do any kicking out that needs to be done.”