I had a nice, long chat on the phone with Steve Howe and the situation is nowhere near as bad as it first seemed. For a start Leila didn’t say anything which might give the impression of having a crush on me, merely that “age doesn’t matter” when talking to people via e-mail.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that Steve sees that it’s good for her to have someone she can talk to and be friends with and possibly talk about things that she might not want to talk to her parents about and thinks that of all the people he knows that I’m one of the best choices he can think of.

I feel a lot better after that phone call.

At last, Steve Howe has been in contact via e-mail.

I’ve apologised for my naivety and have forwarded to him all the e-mails I’ve received from Leila and the two replies I’ve sent.

I’ll phone him tonight.