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Alison smiled, all fury gone from her face.

‘Can we start again? Can I get you a drink? Tea, coffee, wine, beer?’

She swithered for a moment before saying, ‘I wouldn’t say no to a beer, thanks.’

Rocco got a couple of bottles of Peroni Red from his fridge, opened them and handed one to Alison.

‘Frankie said you were at a work thing?’

‘Yeah, a BPS conference, um, British Pharmacological Society.’

‘Was it fun?’

‘More interesting than fun. Workshops on Receptor Theories.’ Rocco must have looked clueless as she elaborated, ‘How drugs behave and the effect they have on cells. Interesting to me, anyway. I came away early. It was running until tomorrow but I’d been to all the talks and it was just the final dinner tonight.’

‘Not fancy the free meal?’

She shook her head then took a swig of her beer.

‘I wanted to get back to this boy, although it would seem Bruno’s more interested in saying hello to you.’

Rocco hastily moved on from that awkward topic.

‘Frankie told me Bruno’s been going on doggy dates.’

‘Hmmm.’ Alison took another swig of beer and looked over at Bruno who was now on his side, snoozing. ‘Bit sad, isn’t it, sending your dog out in the hope he’ll find you a partner.’

‘I don’t think so, not when the idea proved to be so popular.’

‘It would seem there’s lots of us sad folk about.’

‘Not at all. I think it’s life. As people get older and ensconced in jobs and routines, it becomes harder to meet new people.’

‘I think you’re being very kind. And I’ll gloss over the part where you called me old.’

‘No! I didn’t mean that,’ Rocco insisted but could see Alison was teasing him. ‘I just think, life has progressed in such a way, with everything going online, human interaction is harder to achieve and much easier to avoid.’

Alison gave him a rueful little smile as she glanced around. ‘Says the man with the party house.’

Rocco looked at her for a moment before repeating, ‘Party house?’

‘Yeah. This is a party house. The open-plan layout, the…’ Alison paused to count the chairs, ‘twelve-seater dining table and all these barstools around the kitchen island. Then there’s the decking with all those modular outdoor seats and the built-in barbecue and pizza oven. You’re clearly a very sociable person.’

‘I have a big family,’ Rocco said lamely.

‘I just think some of us are meant to be alone and some of us are meant to live in a party house. With friends.’ She raised an eyebrow.

‘Ah, well, I’m actually on my own here tonight, I just wanted you to think… um…’

‘I’d be less likely to go on a full attack if I thought you were surrounded by ten big burly blokes.’

‘Something like that.’

‘You clearly don’t know the lengths a girl would go to in order to get her dog back!’ She smiled, then called out, ‘Bruno!’ This time the dog leapt up, seemingly now happy to go.

‘Thanks for the beer, but I’m off to have a very unsociable evening.’

‘Really? And what does an unsociable evening consist of?’