‘I’m not defending him,’ Nina said. ‘But.’

‘A big but,’ Jules said.

‘Yes, a big but. He’s had his own stuff going on, hasn’t he? Losing his parents like that, growing up with his grandparents. He never saw where he fitted in, and I think that’s been a problem for him.’

‘You’re so forgiving, Nina. There’s the value of ten years of therapy.’ Jules smiled. ‘Although I do see what you’re saying.’ She thought of some of the friends she’d made in recovery. The woman who started playing FIFA with her teenage son and spent £15,000 in one week, eventually selling his console and games without his permission to cover some of her debts. The woman who’d stolen from an old lady she did shopping for to play bingo (and was now paying back). ‘None of us can judge, can we?’

‘You sound like Nate,’ Alice added.

‘How’s it going with Mr Hough then?’ Jules asked. ‘I thought you had a twinkle in your eye whenever you mentioned him.’

‘I think she had a twinkle in other places too,’ Nina laughed as they slotted back into a line and continued walking.

*

‘This has been so nice,’ Jules said a few hours later. They’d stopped to eat in a Mexican restaurant under a railway arch and the time had passed by in what seemed like minutes. When they emerged the sun had set, dropping the temperature a few degrees and shading the sky fuchsia. ‘I really mean that. I’ve missed you girls so much. Let’s never mess up like this again.’

‘I don’t think we could if we tried!’ Nina marvelled. She smiled at Alice tentatively. She wouldn’t blame Alice if she didn’t want to see her again, but she held hope tight in her heart like a blanket that she would. That she could forgive her, and they could rebuild their friendship.

‘Shall we grab a drink?’ Alice asked. She knew things couldn’t be fixed overnight but she couldn’t deny that being back with the girls felt like chicken soup was being infused into her veins.

‘I’ve got to run. I’m going to view a flat,’ Jules said. ‘My first one.’ She was finally coming to terms with leaving her home with Paul, had reconciled herself to a fresh start.

‘I can’t believe you broke up with Paul,’ Nina said, a note of awed wonder in her voice: how was that possible?

‘Me neither,’ said Jules. ‘I don’t blame him. It was all me. I’m lucky I still have him in my life as a friend.’

‘Really?’ Alice said. ‘You can do that?’ She couldn’t yet envisage a time when she could be friends with Ted, despite Nate’s insistence that she give it a go for the sake of the children. He liaised between them, was a sounding board for Ted and his struggles with Charlotte. Frustratingly, Ted would listen to Nate in a way that he never would with her, but at least it meant Charlotte was getting the support – and love – from Ted that she needed. And it gave her relationship with Nate a chance to breathe, meant she could pursue her new job with gusto, now Ted was sharing parenting duties. ‘It’s best for everyone if you two can get along,’ Nate often said, and she had been trying, she really had, but today had brought a whole new can of worms to chew on.