‘Look, my mum was great, she worked hard and made sure I grew up in a house full of love, and there were no meltdowns or things like you have to deal with, but I still found it hard when she had Carey. I still felt pushed out. Even though I love Carey, and I would never change things. Families are complicated.’ A look crossed her face which Alice couldn’t read.

‘You were like an extra parent to Carey,’ Alice said, recalling Nina’s weekend trips to the park with her little sister when Joanie and Liam were working. Alice had joined them once and it was clear Carey adored Nina, always side by side with a gappy-toothed smile.

‘You know she’s going off to uni soon?’ Nina said, shaking her head. ‘It’ll be challenging for Phoebe and Wilf, of course it will, but it’ll be so much more than that, Alice. Their lives will be full and rich and it will be because of you.’ Nina’s eyes were shining now and she sniffed. Alice felt her own eyes fill.

‘Thank you. Both of you. I mean it. I really needed this weekend.’ Her friends, and Mr Hough, were right. And something else was emerging. Something she wasn’t ready to confront and name. ‘Come on,’ Alice said, standing up. ‘Let’s do this. Who are we if we don’t embarrass ourselves on a dance floor?’

‘I spot a raised platform!’ bellowed Jules, wiping tears away from her own eyes as she led the charge.

*

They bopped with gusto, an enthusiastic trio, retriangulated on the dance floor. As they raised their hands to the sky, heads tipped back, Alice, not used to wearing heels, realised she couldn’t feel her feet any more, but she didn’t care. She felt so happy, so completely and utterly happy to be there, dancing in Paris, with her two best friends in the world. Her body felt like her own again, not the decaying temple of her younger self it had become since she’d had children.

This is how we do it…

For the first time in ages, she didn’t care if she was doing something ironically or unironically, she was just enjoying it. She felt a hand around her waist and swung her hips backwards, laughing, expecting it to be one of the girls, but then she spun around and the hot guy Nina had been chatting to earlier unwrapped her from his embrace. She shook her head shyly and pointed at her ring finger. He shrugged, a slow, lazy smile. Alice locked eyes with Nina, who shook her head at her and waggled her eyebrows, in a dirty dog kind of way.

‘Still got it,’ Alice said, sashaying over, wondering briefly whether that was true. Deciding she didn’t give a fuck. Beside her, Jules was dancing with an energy not witnessed since their uni years, both hands in the air, her hair flicking from side to side with abandon. The She-Ra.

‘You’re nuts but I love you!’ Alice shouted.