She opens the door in a bright-blue dress, the colour of an exotic bird. ‘Come in,’ she says, leading me down a narrow hallway and into an open-plan kitchen with an island in the middle. A small table is at the end of the room, in front of the double doors that lead out into the garden. ‘I’m on my own tonight. Richie’s at some conference on gum disease.’ She rolls her eyes. ‘So I’m glad you called.’ She lifts the kettle. ‘Tea, my darling?’I’m enjoying getting to know Annie again. I’ve discovered she used to live in Islington, worked in recruitment, but was always determined to run her own business. She lost her virginity on her twenty-first birthday to a two-timing monkey called Christian. ‘Late starter,’ she’d laughed, ‘but don’t worry, I’ve more than made up for it since.’ She lived with Richie the dentist for a year before realizing she’d fallen in love with him.Annie gives me a quick tour of the house. ‘Winchester was the one place we both loved,’ she says, walking into the sitting room, a cosy space with cream sofas and a guitar on a stand.
