‘Where did you say you were?’

‘Angel. I’m going to see Emma.’ She looks up at the flat again and turns away. ‘And her baby,’ she adds.

‘Oh shit, she had it?’ Claude tuts. ‘She’s so young. Crazy.’

‘She’s twenty-one, it’s not that young. You know Mum had Nick when she was twenty?’

‘What are you trying to say, Yvonne? It’s too young. Believe me.’

‘You’re preaching to the choir,’ Yvonne says quickly. She doesn’t even understand how people fit going to the gym into their lives, never mind children. It’s definitely not something Claude has to worry about with her.

‘Girls are always saying they don’t want babies, until they hold one.’

‘When have I ever been interested in babies?’ Yvonne has always liked children, but never saw attraction of small babies; one was brought into the office last week and while she had a look and joined in with the coos she wondered when she could go back to her desk without being seen as rude. She simply didn’t feel much around them, and didn’t expect to with this one either. But say if he looked like, well, it was hard to think about. Would she be able to tell by looking at him? Probably not, every baby she had ever seen looked pretty similar. Of course it would help if she had seen Geoff without a coating of black paint on his face.

‘Right, I’m going to call Nick.’

‘You sure? I could come back and see Emma another day. There’s no rush.’ She wonders if Emma has already spotted her.

‘Why don’t you want to go? You two fall out?’

‘No. Not exactly. But, well, it changes things when one of you has a baby.’

It was Claude who looked after her when she went home after breaking up with Lewis, Claude who brought her cups of tea and sat with her on the bed while she cried her eyes out. It was Claude who told their parents to back off when they kept asking why she was so sad. Obviously, he knew she’d had her heart broken, but he never asked for more information than that. She wants to tell him every little part of the story and has done for the last couple of months, but it still feels too raw, too painful and most importantly it’s unresolved. Today could change everything.

‘Yvonne, look, Mum’s trying to call me. Go and see your friend but remember, don’t go getting attached to that baby, alright?’

‘Alright.’

‘See you later.’