“See you tomorrow”, I called to JT as I climbed out of his car. He confirmed the lunch date and then drove off.

Just after 1pm the next day, TPR and I realised that we had forgotten all about lunch with JT. We needed to contact him fast, first to say that we were on our way, and second to confirm his address.

While I hunted through my limited wardrobe to find a dress to wear for the meal (I wasn’t sure whether this counted as a work or a social event), TPR tried to phone JT on his mobile. We soon discovered that we had no way of reaching our lunch host. JT had disabled texts on his phone, and had set up a ludicrously long voicemail to discourage others from leaving messages for him.

I wondered if the number we had was for work, and whether JT used a different one for close friends? I instructed TPR to call EMc to see if he knew another way of contacting JT. By now, however, I was pretty sure that our lunch date was off.