The other night, J fell asleep while we were watching TV in bed. His glasses were still on. I tried to take them off without waking him, but they got stuck on his ear. He grabbed my wrist, opened his eyes and shouted “No!” as if someone was attacking him.

“It’s just me,” I said.

He looked at me and laughed, but he had that far away, ‘I’m still sleeping’ look in his eyes. “Oh, thank god,” he said. “I thought it was a human!”