She was blushing even harder now, but for some reason she seemed determined to press ahead and say this. Almost as though there were a point she wanted to get to. She raised her head, and both she and Holly looked straight into Simon's eyes.

For one moment, both of the twins held his gaze.

Then suddenly, Sasha's own phone gave a loud, buzzing alarm.

"Oh shit," she hissed, scrambling to pull it out of her pocket and turn it off, as people at other tables cast them irritated looks. "Oh no, Holly, that's to remind us we've got US History again in five minutes."

And she sounded genuinely and...