‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’ Emma adjusts her bra. ‘My skin is itching like mad. No one tells you it’s going to itch. Do you have any cream on you?’

Yvonne takes a bottle of hand cream from her bag and Emma hoots, ‘Elemis? Someone’s making money.’

‘Hardly, I got it in a goodie bag at a work Christmas party.’

Emma pulls up her top and rubs the cream into her stomach. ‘Ah, this feels good though. Can I keep it?’

Seeing her belly exposed and taut, with the red marks running up the sides, is shocking. This whole pregnancy thing feels like it’s happened so fast. While they’d managed to catch up on the phone regularly, spending real time with each other had become rare as time went on. It wasn’t only that Yvonne made excuses not to see Emma, it was also the other way around, with Emma constantly backing out of plans. ‘She’s embarrassed,’ was Yvonne’s mum’s theory. She had told Yvonne to back off for a bit, but the months flew by so when she saw Emma at Box Room Bethany’s engagement party last month, it was a shock. Emma didn’t last long before getting fed up with questions about her pregnancy, plus she was never the kind of person who enjoyed socialising without a drink.

‘So,’ Yvonne says, ‘I’m sorry about the party last month.’

‘Why?’ Emma asks, but it’s clear from her expression she was expecting this apology.

‘I felt like I should have left early with you.’ Yvonne had watched Emma leave and known that a good friend would have left early with her, but it was Yvonne’s first night out in ages and she was having fun.

‘Don’t be silly. It was a shit party anyway.’

There’s no point going over it, Yvonne will only end up apologising for every night out she’s not invited Emma to, for not shutting down the gossip from the others when they joked about if Emma’s ‘baby daddy’ was Two Minute Terry or the new guy she lived with or some random she’d met in Kenya over the summer.

‘So, where’s all the baby shopping you were coming to get done?’

‘They deliver it. I’m pretty much sorted now. Though I felt like a teen mum in there, everyone is so old.’

‘I can’t believe you’re splashing out on John Lewis.’ Yvonne looks at the Nursery catalogue on the table. ‘Can’t you get all this stuff from Argos or somewhere a bit cheaper?’

‘Dude, the only way my parents know how to deal with this situation is to chuck money at it, so I’m letting them.’

‘They’re not being supportive?’

‘They’re being themselves.’

Yvonne pulls a box of reduced Christmas chocolates from her bag and Emma takes a handful.

‘Where’s your work?’ Emma asks.

‘Across the road.’