I didn’t even hear the doorbell go, but all of a sudden I noticed Maggie had left the table and then she was back and Lee was with her.

‘Hi,’ he said, ‘sorry I’m so late.’

There was a moment – just a moment – of shocked silence as everyone took him in, his dark grey suit, blond hair, bright blue eyes – his warm smile. And then all the girls started talking at the same time.

Sylvia jumped up from her position at the head of the table and threw her arms around his neck while everyone else stood and waited to either kiss him on the cheek or shake him by the hand. I was last, of course, but then I was kind of trapped around the other side of the table. When he got a chance to sit down, he gave me a kiss and a wink, and a whispered ‘sorry’.

I felt as if I was on fire. I’d not seen him for nearly a week, during which time I’d imagined him dead in a ditch on more than one occasion. I’d felt lonely and alone. I’d felt as if I was being followed, being watched. But now, suddenly, everything was fine: my beautiful, sexy boyfriend was back and I’d almost forgotten just how lovely he was.

Everyone had relaxed, Louise was happily telling everyone about the time Claire laughed so much she wet herself in the Queen’s Head and had to dry her knickers off under the hand dryer, Stevie was talking to Lee about the car he’d just bought and I was glowing. The way he looked – so beautiful and cool, serene; the way he’d smiled at them all and apologised for being late; the fact that he’d somehow found the time to buy Sylvia a bottle of Cristal and Maggie a bunch of long-stemmed white roses; but above all the way all the girls had looked at him dumbstruck, with a kind of awe – and here he was, sitting next to me, giving Stevie his undivided attention, his right hand under the table, on my thigh.

I heard my mobile buzzing in my bag and I fished around in there for it, thinking it was probably a delayed text from Lee to say he was on his way.

Bizarrely, it was from Sylv.

I looked at her at the other end of the table, chatting away happily to Max, who at last was starting to calm down and lose some of the purple in his face that always seemed to develop at any sort of stress.

 Claire was starting to look very pink around the cheeks. ‘Are you going to pause for a bit, Claire?’ Sam said, giving her a look. ‘We don’t want a repeat performance of the other night in the Cheshire, do we?’

‘Don’t be mean.’ Claire pouted. ‘Anyway, that reminds me, you haven’t told them all about what happened with Jack in the Cheshire, have you?’

‘Oh, God, that was funny.’

‘Tell them,’ Claire insisted, and then, not pausing for breath, ‘Jack was in the Cheshire and he’d got to the point where he was completely off his face, and he knew he was going to chuck up everywhere – ’

‘As you do,’ said Lennon.

‘ – And he went running into the gents,’ continued Sam, since Claire was having trouble controlling herself, ‘and he was in such a hurry he just rammed open one of the toilet doors… and some poor bloke was sitting in there having a crap and got the fright of his life when Jack slammed the door open on him. But the problem was Jack couldn’t hold it in any longer – ’

‘ – Or maybe he was just too pissed to realise the toilet wasn’t actually empty,’ added Claire, tears running down her cheeks.

‘So he ended up vomming into this poor bloke’s lap…’

‘Oh, God, that’s not even the funniest bit…’

‘And as soon as he could pause for breath he managed to think, hang on, I’ve just puked all over a stranger, if I were him I’d be a bit pissed off, and he started to consider that maybe attack was the best form of defence, so he punched him in the face and ran back out of the toilet.’

Everyone was laughing now, except Charlie.

‘Oh, God,’ said Claire, ‘I’m going for a wee. Back in a minute.’

‘So you mean,’ said Charlie seriously, ‘he puked all over some stranger’s legs and then punched him in the face? For no reason?’

‘Summat like that, yeah,’ said Sam, wiping her eyes.

‘Would someone pass me the gravy?’ Charlie said.

‘Charlie, you’re such a spoon,’ Louise said.

‘I’m sure I recognise your face, Lee,’ Stevie was saying. ‘Have we met through work or something?’

‘I don’t think so. I’ve been working on the door at the River,’ Lee said. ‘Maybe it was there.’

‘Could’ve been. Have you been to see the new competition yet? It’s pretty impressive in there. The Red Divine, I mean – we went there on Friday.’

‘No. I’m not much of a clubber, to be honest – too many nights spent seeing the aftermath of it all.’

‘Good on you,’ Max boomed from the opposite side of the table. ‘That’s what I keep trying to tell this lot: they’re better off growing up and spending their money on sensible things, or better still investing it somewhere.’

‘Oh, shut up, you old grouch,’ Maggie said playfully. ‘Just ignore grandad, girls. He’s forgotten how to have fun.’

‘I have perfectly excellent fun, thank you very much.’

‘…With the crossword and Radio Three, of course you do.’

We ate and we talked, and every so often Lee’s hand would drop under the table and find my thigh, and just rest there, warm and heavy, not requiring a response.

When I’d finished eating I took hold of his hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. He looked at me questioningly. His eyes really were so beautiful, so open. Everyone else was busy talking and not paying any attention to us.

I whispered in his ear, ‘Were you in the house today?’

He looked mystified. ‘I was working. Why?’

‘Someone changed the knives and forks over.’

He gave me a look that said, why on earth would anyone do that? But at the same time he had a twinkle in his eye.

‘Did you do it for a laugh?’

‘I just wanted you to know I was looking out for you.’

I felt my cheeks flush. I don’t know why I suddenly felt so uncomfortable, but I did.

‘You could have left me a note,’ I said.

 ‘Too obvious,’ he said, with a wink and a smile.

I drank the last of my wine and thought about it for a moment, laughing at something Sylvia had said.

Lee’s thumb was stroking the back of my hand, gently, making me shiver.

‘Lee,’ I said, quietly.

‘Hm?’

‘Don’t do it again. Please.’

‘Do what?’

‘Don’t move my stuff around. Please. Okay?’

His face clouded a little, but he nodded. A few moments later he let go of my hand when Maggie collected our plates. He didn’t take hold of it again after that.