There was a sudden twinge in her stomach and a shuffle of chairs as she attempted to process his meaning – was he saying she should quit before having more children, or that she should quit the job?

‘St John, old boy!’ Suddenly Bradford was standing, before she could stop him, leaning in to shake the hands of a man in a tweed three-piece suit.

‘Gabriela?’ Madeleine’s arm jabbed hers, and she turned, dismayed by how abruptly the previous interaction had ended.

‘You guys know each other, right?’ Madeleine asked, indicating towards Serena.

‘Yes, I mean we haven’t really … Hi,’ Gabriela said, aware of her cheeks growing hot as she looked back over her shoulder, only to find Bradford had already gone.

When she looked back around Serena was smiling at her. ‘Nice to meet you properly.’

Moving her attention back to Madeleine, she added, ‘I’ll meet you down there.’

‘We’re going for a smoke,’ Madeleine said, and not knowing what else to do, Gabriela followed her. Pushing her way through the crowd, her eyes scanned the room for signs of Bradford, but by now it seemed all the upper echelons had left.

‘Who are you looking for?’ Madeleine asked once the two of them had settled in the pub garden.

‘No one. What do you think of Emsworth?’ Gabriela asked, suddenly unable to contain her thoughts, the wine having loosened her lips.

Madeleine snorted. ‘I think you know very clearly what I think of him. The man’s a complete—’

‘Yeah but, more than that. I think he’s …’

The moment she started talking, Madeleine looked up, her expression changing. ‘What?’

‘I don’t know, there’s just something …’ Gabriela reached for the cigarettes, her fingers trembling with the cold. The sight of Johnny heading out with a couple of the lads stopped her in her tracks. As she inhaled the smoke from the cigarette, she coughed, feeling suddenly light-headed, holding onto the table with her free hand.

Madeleine turned to follow her gaze towards Johnny and the boys before turning back and considering Gabriela for a moment.

‘Are you OK, Gabs? You look a bit—’

‘I’m fine, just knackered as per fucking always,’ she replied, glad for the conversation to be moving away from what she had just raised. This was not the time or place for such confidences; she was drunk. But she was only just starting her third glass, it wasn’t like her to be so affected by wine.

‘What happened to your girlfriend?’ Gabriela asked, changing the subject.

‘She’s gone to the loo, and then she’s getting her coat, ready to come back to mine.’

Gabriela couldn’t be sure if she was being serious or not, and she couldn’t summon the energy to pretend to give a shit, the headache that had begun to sneak up an hour or so earlier now reaching fever pitch.

‘Seriously though, are you all right?’