You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol. Louisa Young

does she.’

      ‘It’s not for me.’

      ‘Yes it is,’ he said. ‘OK. I’ll do it.’ (Air of doing a great favour.) ‘I won’t drink when I’m with you.’ He announced it as if it were in his gift.

      ‘At all,’ I said gently.

      ‘And I won’t be POA,’ he said. ‘All right?’ A little aggressively. (POA is Pissed On Arrival.)

      ‘At all,’ I said.

      He avoided understanding.

      ‘OK,’ he said.

      ‘At all, ever, whether I am there or not,’ I said, very clearly. ‘Ever again.’

      ‘But I can’t have a steak without a glass or two of nice fat red wine,’ he said. ‘It’s a cultural thing, it’s …’