‘I don’t think we can go to my place,’ Alex says, once we’re outside. There’s no one around – the shops and cafes are closed. The road is still busy, but the cars, buses and taxis aren’t going to notice Alex talking to himself.

‘Why not?’ I ask, pressing up against him, dipping my lips to the soft spot where his neck meets his shoulder. ‘Not allowed to bring girls back? That’s the beauty of me being invisible…’

He laughs and kisses my temple. ‘No. That’s not it.’

He lights a cigarette, turning to blow the smoke away from me.

‘Then what? You’ve been to my place a bunch of times. I want to see where you live. Is it a creepy serial killer type place? Or have you got My Little Pony wallpaper? Oh wait, are you married?’

I say it as a joke, but as soon as the words are out of my mouth, my stomach plummets.

‘Oh my god, you’re not, are you?’

‘No!’ Alex says, one hand tangling in the back of my hair as he tips my face up. ‘God, no, of course I’m not married.’ He kisses me quickly and I feel some of the tension leach out of my shoulders.

‘I…’ he says and then stops. And I feel his lips on the top of my head, his fingers pressing between the bones on the back of my neck. ‘It’s…’ he says.

‘What?’ I say. ‘It can’t be that bad. Just tell me.’

‘I think,’ he says, his voice is wobbling as if he’s nervous and it makes me nervous too. But it also makes me want to tell him it’s okay. ‘I think it’d be better if I showed you.’

‘Okay,’ I say, moving my hand down to tangle with his. ‘And, honestly, I don’t even mind if it is the My Little Pony wallpaper. We’ve all been there.’

He grins. ‘No My Little Pony wallpaper, I promise.’

‘Is it far?’

He shakes his head. ‘Nope. It’s actually really near.’

‘That’s good,’ I say. ‘Short commute.’

He huffs out a laugh. ‘Yeah.’

We walk up Charing Cross Road and turn down Manette Street and then right on Greek Street.

‘Wow,’ I say, swinging our arms a bit. ‘You live really close to work.’

And then we walk into Soho Square and right up to the office.

‘We’re going to the office,’ I say. I’m really confused.

Alex looks nervous. He’s biting his lip and squeezing my hand and when he slides the key card into the door his fingers are shaking.

He doesn’t speak as we walk up to the office.

‘Is this ’cos you want to do it on Mel’s desk?’ I ask eventually, because I can’t stand the tension. ‘You could’ve just asked.’

He laughs, but doesn’t say anything, just leads me through the office – which is almost entirely dark apart from the light from a few computers that haven’t shut down properly – and to the archive room.

‘Alex,’ I say as he opens the door and gestures for me to go inside.

He turns the light on. ‘Just let me show you, okay?’

His cheeks are pink and he lets go of my hand and then runs his hands back through his hair. He pulls the stepladder down from the hook at the end of the row of files and climbs up a couple of steps, taking a box down from the top right hand corner of the metal shelving. He steps back down, puts the box on the floor and takes off the lid.

I’m expecting to see the green hanging files that fill the rest of these boxes, but instead I see fabric. I can’t tell what it is, but Alex leans over and lifts it out. It’s navy and orange and shiny and unmistakably a sleeping bag.

‘Alex,’ I say, my voice barely more than a whisper.

He doesn’t even look at me; he bends again and lifts out a pillow, a bed roll and a washbag.

‘Alex,’ I say again, louder this time.

He looks at me and his eyes are wide and almost scared. ‘So,’ he says. ‘Now you know.’

I can’t move. I can’t think. I want to fling myself at him. I want to press myself against him. I want to kiss that expression off his face. I breathe in and out.

‘Izzy?’ he says, running his hand through his hair again. ‘Say something. I can’t—’

I don’t. Instead I take two steps and press up against him. He’s not expecting it, so he staggers back, bashing into the desk. I push my hands into his hair and pull him down to kiss me.

‘I can’t believe—’ I say against his mouth. ‘Why didn’t you ever—’

He pulls me more firmly against him, settling back against the desk and moving his legs to make space for me between them.

‘I thought…’ he says as I drop my head back and he kisses down my throat. ‘I was embarrassed. I thought you might not want to go out with me if you knew.’

I let out an involuntary honk of laughter and press my forehead against his shoulder. ‘Alex. I’m fucking invisible. I’m in no position to judge.’

‘Fair point,’ he says, smiling and kisses me again.

I pull his shirt aside to kiss his collarbones – I love them – and then I pull back. ‘Hey. Where are all your clothes?’

He smiles. ‘Ah. Well for a start, I don’t have many. I keep a jumper on the back of my chair in the office. I’ve got a couple of t-shirts in the drawers. And then there’s some stuff in another box.’ He points at the boxes above his head.

‘Right,’ I say and kiss him again, smoothing my hands down his back, his hands resting on my waist.

‘That morning!’ I say, pulling back again. ‘When you were singing Super Mario!’

‘Oh god,’ he says. ‘You heard that?’

‘I did,’ I say. ‘I loved it.’ I kiss him again.

‘I mean,’ he says, dipping his head to my neck. ‘I probably would have told you sooner if I’d known archive rooms got you so hot.’

‘So no one else knows?’ I say.

‘I think Mary suspects,’ he says, talking about the cleaner. ‘She’s never said anything, but she gives me this look sometimes. But apart from her, no. Not as far as I know. I’m pretty careful.’

‘So,’ I say, resting the top of my head on his chest. ‘Can I ask why?’

‘Course. You can ask anything. I told you that I used to have a flat share? Well, that fell apart. Literally, the ceiling caved in. And the friends I was sharing with went travelling. And I didn’t know anyone well enough to get a place together. And the rooms I looked at were stupidly expensive with huge deposits that I just didn’t have. I don’t get paid that much. I could never save anything. We didn’t get all our deposit back from the first place ’cos we had this party and stuff got… broken.’

I squeeze him and his arms tighten around me.

‘I kept looking further and further out from the office, but whatever I was saving on the room was costing me on the commute. I stayed in a hostel for a few nights, but then I thought about staying in the office until I could save up for a deposit and a couple of months’ rent and… here we are.’

‘I wish I’d known,’ I say quietly.

‘How would you have known?’ he asks, smiling at me. ‘And what would you have done?’

‘I don’t know. You could’ve come and slept on my sofa.’

‘Max would’ve loved that.’

I roll my eyes. ‘I just… Isn’t it weird? Aren’t you lonely?’

‘Sometimes,’ he says. ‘I mean, I was. Before.’

‘Before?’

‘Before I found you,’ he says.

My breath catches in my chest and I can’t speak.

‘Izzy?’ he says, his voice wavering a little.

‘That’s… a lot,’ I say.

‘Is it?’ He smiles and I want to jump up on him like a koala.

‘Yes.’

‘Oh,’ he says, his mouth twisting in amusement. ‘I didn’t realise.’

I stare at him. I want to kiss him. But he sleeps here. He sleeps in the archive room. I can’t believe it.

‘Is there…’ I drag my eyes away from his face and look around the room. ‘Where do you sleep? Just right here?’

He shakes his head and I step back as he pushes away from the desk. I follow him to the ‘L’ part of the room and he slides the first filing cabinet out behind us.

‘Privacy,’ he says.

I shake my head. ‘I still can’t believe you’ve been sleeping here all this time. God, Alex.’

‘It’s fine, honest. But I’m seriously not expecting you to stay here.’ He pulls his phone out of his pocket. ‘There must be a hotel—’

‘I want to,’ I say, reaching for his phone. He laughs as I pull it out of his hand.

‘You really don’t,’ he says.

‘I do.’

‘I’ve only got one sleeping bag,’ he says.

I put my hands on his chest and kiss him gently. ‘Not a problem.’

‘Ow, sorry, that’s my—’

‘No, I’m sorry, I thought I—’

‘It’s okay. Just let me—’

‘Yeah, that’s better. I can feel where—’

‘Just… if you put your hand here then—’

‘Wait. Just let me—’

‘Hang on. If you just sit, then I can—’

‘Okay, yeah. Sorry. I just wanted to—’

It turns out that having sex on the floor in an archive room isn’t all that easy or comfortable.

‘That’s good,’ he says, smiling. ‘I can feel you now.’

‘Is it too much? Am I squashing you?’

‘God, no. Don’t worry so much.’

One hand slides up my back and the other into my hair and then we’re kissing again and I’m pressing myself against him and I stop thinking. Or at least, I stop thinking about everything else. I think about Alex. About the way he smells and tastes and feels. About his hair in my hands, his skin under my fingers. I graze his earlobe with my teeth and rub my cheek along his jaw. His eyes are closed and his lashes are long and his lips are full and biteable. I bite them.

I move off him and lie back on the hard floor, guiding his hands back to my body. I pull his jumper over his head and run my fingers down his chest. He’s more muscular than I expected – properly defined pecs and a hint of a six-pack. The line of hair running from his chest down behind the waistband of his jeans makes my breath catch.

His hands move up the front of my body, grazing my breasts and I arch my back.

‘Let me take this off,’ I mumble. ‘Close your eyes though, ’cos it’s going to look really weird. Like a magic trick.’

He grins. ‘That sounds cool. Let me watch.’

‘No. Shut your eyes.’

‘What if I just shut one?’

I sit up and kiss him again. ‘No. Shut them both.’

He does. He’s kneeling up now, his eyes closed, smiling. I just want to look at him.

‘Is it off?’ he says, opening one eye.

‘No!’

He closes his eyes again and I pull my t-shirt over my head and drop it on the floor next to the sofa and lie back down, pulling him on top of me.

We both groan as his chest touches mine and I hook one leg around his thigh.

‘Oh god,’ he says, against my neck. ‘I wish I could see you.’

‘I know. I’m sorry.’

‘No, I’m sorry. I mean, pointless thing to say, I know. I just…’ He kisses along my collarbone and traces his lips across my chest. ‘You’re just so beautiful.’

‘Water!’ I almost yelp. ‘You could see me – a bit – with water.’

‘Oh god, yeah,’ he says. ‘Let’s do that.’

He stands up and bangs his head on one of the rails of files that must have slid out when he moved the cabinet.

‘Shit,’ he says. ‘Hang on. I’ve got water in my bag.’

He slides the cabinet back and I hear him in the other part of the room, and then he’s back. He puts his bag down in the corner and takes the top off a bottle of Evian.

‘Will this work?’ he asks, looking down at me.

‘I think so,’ I say. ‘Are you going to… pour it on me?’

His eyebrows quirk up and my face gets hot.

He grins. ‘Maybe not here – we’ve got to sleep on this floor – but definitely save that idea.’

‘Shut up,’ I say. ‘So what are you going to do, then?’

His eyes go dark as he dips his fingers into the water and then reaches towards me. I guide his hand to my face and he runs his finger along my cheekbone. I see his eyes widen and he gasps.

‘Did it work?’ I say.

‘A bit,’ he says. He dips his fingers again, before tracing them across my forehead, down my nose, across my lips. And then over again. More. I watch his eyes as he looks at me. His pupils are wide. I can feel his breath on my face. It’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced.