On the Monday after the SFWWR Awards Lunch I went to see Sergei with a heart somewhat softened by an article about him in the previous day’s Sunday glossy, illustrated by a selection of wonderful photos of him leaping about in tights, which reminded me of how fond I was of him and the love we’d shared over the years.

I was pleased to see that from a Frankenstein point of view his face looked almost back to normal, only smoothed out, as was his neck, so that the heavy make-up was absent except for a smudge of eyeliner as usual. I had been wondering where that last ‘Gunsmoke Grey’ I bought went; I was forever finding Sergei in my make-up bag.

I supposed I could have got used to the lack of character lines – which were bound to come back eventually, weren’t they? – but the rather mask-like rigidity of his face made him seem sort of alien and cold, especially with his slanting, liquid dark eyes glistening through, so that I was less than responsive to anything other than a welcoming kiss; and in the end I had to tell him right out that it put me off, and also reminded him that I still hadn’t quite forgiven him for catching him with the Blue Butterfly that time, a blow that even diamonds couldn’t heal instantly, and so he would just have to resign himself to our being friends until I could come to terms with everything. Then he went profoundly sulky and accused me of wanting to ditch him for Nathan.

‘You like him,’ he said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at me. ‘I could tell.’

‘And you like Grigor,’ I said coldly and unreasonably, as presumably once upon a time he’d liked Grigor’s mother, which is more to the point, though of course Sergei didn’t know that I knew about that yet.

And then Sergei said, ‘But I do not like Grigor that way, as I shall show you!’

Which of course I already knew. Although normally I adored the way Sergei’s English rapidly deteriorated when he was agitated, this time I fended him off because I’d never felt any desire to make love to the Man in the Iron Mask, let alone the Botox one, and until the effect wore off I didn’t think things would ever be the same between us, and maybe not even then.