‘And she trusted you?’

They both laugh.

Emma opens the box again and picks out the strawberry heart, Yvonne’s favourite. ‘You’re more stressed than me about this.’

‘You don’t even like having your blood taken and now you’re about to give birth.’

‘There’s nothing I can do about it, is there?’

Yvonne feels her phone vibrate in her bag. She slips it out and reads the message from her boss, asking what time she’ll be back at the office. She thought that by arriving an hour earlier for work this morning, it wouldn’t matter if she actually took a lunch break.

‘You need to get back?’ Emma asks.

Yvonne has managed to stay away from Emma during this pregnancy, out of sight, out of mind. But now, seeing her like this, vulnerable, it’s different. ‘No, not yet.’ She puts her phone away.

‘What are you working on anyway?’

‘Nothing interesting. Show me what you ordered?’ Yvonne flicks through the catalogue, passing images of cots and pushchairs, searching for something to say. ‘Are you going for one of these prams, with the big wheels?’

‘Big wheels? Oh shut up, I’m not going to baby talk with you.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s boring. You’re not interested. I’m not even interested. Tell me what you’re working on.’ Emma pulls the catalogue away and throws it behind them. ‘Please?’

‘Nothing really, it’s all pretty standard stuff. Doing product launches, meeting journalists, going to networking events.’

‘Why do you never invite me to any of these events?’

Yvonne nods towards the belly, ‘Because you’re eleven months pregnant.’

‘Yes, pregnant, I don’t have to be quarantined. I’m surprised you were even up for meeting me today.’

Yvonne offers Emma the last chocolate. ‘I’m doing long hours at the moment. I hardly see anyone. It’s just how it is.’

‘How it is when one of you is up the duff.’

That’s the reason she tells herself, everything else is stuff that doesn’t register, no one needs to know about it. The whole Lewis thing was a mistake and she wishes she never met him. She thought after they broke things off it would get easier, but the very opposite happened. She found she couldn’t stop thinking about him, missing him, wondering if there was a way ‘around’ the situation, if perhaps he was right and they could ‘wait it out’ to see if the baby was his. But Yvonne knew herself too well, she could feel how much she was getting attached to Lewis, how her feelings for him were growing stronger as time went on. The idea that they would carry on as normal only to then break things off when the baby arrived was stupid. They needed a clean break. And that’s what they did. No calls, no texts, no cross-over friends reporting back on how the other one was feeling.