Now Alex and I have history, too. Whether or not we still have chemistry doesn’t bear thinking about.

‘Hello?’ Bridget’s tinny voice comes down the receiver.

‘Bridget!’ I cry, relieved that she answered.

‘Bronte!’ she cries in return. ‘I was just about to call you, I promise I was!’

‘Why?’ I ask, confused at her slightly panicked, slightly guilty tone.

‘Has Elliot not told you?’ she replies.

‘Told me what?’

‘Oh! I thought that was why you were calling!’

‘Bridget!’ I exclaim. ‘What’s going on?!’

I hear her inhale quickly and let her breath out in a rush, while I wait for her to speak.

‘I’m getting married.’

I almost fall off the sofa. ‘What?’

‘I’m engaged. Charlie proposed to me. I’m getting married,’ she repeats. And then she bursts out laughing.

‘What? How?’ I ask with surprise. ‘When?’

‘Next summer.’

‘No, I mean, when did he propose?’

‘Two days ago,’ she replies. I can’t see her face, but I know that she’s beaming from ear to ear.

‘Wow.’ I’m astonished. She and Charlie met a year or so ago and have only been a proper couple for half that time. ‘That was quick!’

‘I know,’ she replies, her enthusiasm dampened slightly by my reaction. ‘But when you know, you know.’

‘And you know?’ I ask weakly.

‘I’ve never been more certain about anything in my entire life,’ she states calmly but firmly.

A belated bubble of excitement bursts inside me and I let out a squeal. She cracks up laughing again, relieved that I’m finally responding appropriately.

‘I thought Elliot must’ve told you!’

Realisation dawns on me. ‘He’s out with Lachie. Lachie said he seemed pretty down. Is that why?’

‘Yeah, I called him earlier.’ Her tone becomes subdued.

‘He didn’t take it well?’

‘No. He was knocked for six.’

I’m not surprised. I’m reeling, myself. Bridget has been in and out of love so many times, and, even though she’s told me that it’s different with Charlie, that he’s unlike anyone she’s ever known, I didn’t really believe it. Now I know I underestimated their feelings for each other.

It’s funny, I always thought of my friend as an open book: warm, outgoing and the best person to be around. But there’s a side to her that I never got to know in the time that we lived together. She’s never struck me as a particularly maternal person – she and Elliot were alike in their desire not to have children, I thought. But Charlie has a young daughter, April, and the way Bridget talks about her with such obvious adoration makes me wonder if I ever really knew her at all.

‘Where did he propose?’ I ask with a smile, determined to try to make up for my initial lack of enthusiasm.

‘At the beach,’ she replies. ‘The one with the sea glass.’