“You can tell me all the juicy details later,” she says with an exaggerated wink.

“Tell you what?” There’s a roaring in my ears, like a wave about to break and drown me.

“All about whoever has given you such a glow, you lucky thing!” Her laugh is big and salacious.

Once everyone has settled in the living room, I bring in champagne and margaritas and take a seat. They are all watching me; I assume that as host I’m expected to lead the discussion. “So,” I say, picking up a copy of the book from the coffee table. “What did we all think?”

The others turn to look at each other, confusion on their faces. Have I got this all wrong? But they don’t look suspicious. They look… well… disappointed.

“You read it?” The derision in Rachel’s voice is clear.

“Err, yes.” Did Leah not usually even bother to read the book?

“Well, that’s a first,” Kira says, like she doesn’t think I’d be capable. I don’t think I like Kira. Although I imagine she is probably Leah’s favorite; she always did flock to the other bitchy girls.

“Oh, God! Does that mean we actually have to talk about it?” Amy downs the rest of her glass as she continues to throw me plaintive looks.

“So much for the drill, Leah,” says Rachel, shaking her head.

I realize my role within this group. I am the stupid one. The one the others laugh at. I wonder if Leah knew? So, I do what I have to. I burst into laughter. “Oh. My. God! You should have seen your faces! Of course I didn’t read the book! What do you take me for?”

I watch the others visibly relax.

“Thank God,” Joey says as she holds the book up and tries to find a way to get her selfie pout and the book jacket into the same photo without it looking like she has a double chin.

“Right then,” Rachel says as she digs around in the large handbag by her feet and pulls out an electronic vape contraption that looks like a battery pack for a small robot. “I bought the super strong one.” She presses a button as she inhales deeply on the pipe end, closing her eyes as the vapor clouds around her head. “Damn that’s good…”

The vape contains a potent cannabis blend and within ten minutes the women are looking a lot more relaxed, lounging around the living room. There is obviously no intention to talk about the book at all. I pour more champagne for them. I have never been into drugs—I mean, of course I had the odd toke on a communal spliff at university, but that was the extent of it. I’d pretended to take half an ecstasy tablet in a nightclub toilet when I was eighteen, out on the town with a group of slightly older colleagues from the pub I worked in for the summer. Leah had come with us and had swallowed the tablet eagerly, swilled down by the brilliant blue of a bottle of WKD. I’d tried to smuggle her back into the house so our parents didn’t see her. But we had been caught.