Jo hadn’t even started her first semester and she was already well into the ‘I know everything and you are deeply stupid’ phase of studenthood. I remembered it fondly. The wonderful day I sat Mum and Dad down and explained the horrors of the dairy industry all while Dad enjoyed a Mini Milk.

btw can you ask m+d if I can bring my gf to the wedding? She wants to meet u all, idk y

Jo had a girlfriend and expected me to tell our parents.

So, that’s how my day could get worse.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I hadn’t realized quite how far away Lucy had moved until it took me a bus, two trains, another bus and a fifteen-minute walk to get to her house on Sunday evening. Wandering down her road, following the little blue dot down a Google Map, I marvelled at all the restored Victorian houses. When I was younger, when we first all moved into the city together, I was obsessed with Georgian mews houses. I’d imagine what it would be like to live in a whole house, all by myself, with my husband and then maybe even our kids. There was usually a cat in the mix as well, sometimes a dog, depending on whoever filled out the man-shaped gap in my fantasy. Patrick was definitely a dog person but I already knew who would be taking it out for a walk in the rain when he was on a deadline.

Regardless of how far away it was, the house was a beauty, I thought as Lucy let me in, leading me down the narrow hallway, past the living room, through the kitchen and out into a carefully designed, dinky back garden. The lawn was perfectly mowed, the plants all pruned to perfection. Someone had spent a lot of time out there, making sure every blade of grass met its rigorously maintained size and colour, and I was almost certain that person was not Lucy.

‘This is very impressive domesticity,’ I told Lucy as she set a teapot down on the table between us.

‘Dave is proud of his garden,’ she confirmed, casting an approving glance over the flowerbeds. ‘Ever since I got pregnant, I haven’t been able to keep him in the house. I think he’s afraid if he accidentally bumps into my belly, the baby will fall out.’

I looked up at the painfully blue sky, dotted with little white puffballs here and there. What we really needed was a storm – the humidity had been rising for days now – but according to the weatherman, the heat would hold out for at least another week. I poured the tea, to save Lucy the effort of having to pick up the teapot.