Oh, and the following day I was having an actual book launch at a bar opposite Salubrious House. It was all a complete surprise to me, but it showed that advance orders must be good.

Nathan was going to be there too and except for the break-up I might have asked Sergei … only then he would probably have overshadowed me because of his fame and whopping great charisma, plus his other striking personal attributes – and frankly I didn’t want to share the limelight at all: this was my moment! I would have asked Linny to go with me under other circumstances – like her not having slept with my lover, for instance.

I wore something lighter and sassier than a suit this time, which is just as well because the wine bar was crammed full and very hot, but then this sort of thing usually is because all the publishing staff dash in for free booze and nibbles, and then just as quickly pour out again, leaving only the hard core of people who have to be there.

Tim had to be pleasant to me, and Nathan said I looked beautiful and the book was going to be a big success, and he stayed next to me practically the whole time, even though Jinni did her best to lure him away, and full marks to her for effort. God knows, I don’t blame her because the publishing world is full of women, which is why when you see even an old Suit at these affairs they are always entirely surrounded by attractive women, charmed by the novelty. Even Tim seemed to have no trouble attracting several, despite his lack of hair and dyspeptic expression.

I loved the balloons with trowels and things printed on them that they’d decked the room with, though the ribbed green cucumber ones looked a bit like inflated condoms … and when I had a closer look I could have sworn …

But no, surely not? And the big, helium rose-shaped ones were very tasteful, so I took one home with me.

Several people mentioned the latest extract from Sergei’s memoirs, especially hinting about the mysterious ‘T’, love of his life, and asking how I felt about the papers linking me with those photos of Sergei and a naked woman in his garden. Oh, and hadn’t Sergei and I been friends for years?

But I was back to the enigmatic smile and the bland: ‘Do they really?’ because clearly I could make it on my own. I didn’t need any two-timing Bolsheviks to boost my ratings.

Dark, Passionate Earth seemed to be everywhere, and so was I, signing it. This time sometimes I actually sat and signed it for people, though if anyone else implied anything about me and Sergei I thought that I was going to lob a copy at their head and I feared the enigmatic smile would soon turn into a snarl.