I am in seventh heaven when I am alone with my partner.

The best hour is often the one after the guests leave. Shoes off, dishes still out, both of you finally saying what you actually thought about the evening.

Being alone together is a resource that disappears quietly. First to work, then to children, then to the general noise of a running household. It rarely gets defended because it never looks urgent.

Nothing has to happen inside it. That is the point of it. Company without an agenda is much rarer at forty than it was at twenty-five, and considerably more valuable.

Book an hour of it this week the way you would book anything else.