‘He was working and turned off his phone and lost track of time,’ I said, letting it all out in one big breath. ‘But he showed up and he brought us cupcakes! Isn’t that amazing? It’s hardly his fault Sumi randomly decided to become a lightweight on her birthday. But he did show up, you can ask John, John saw him.’

‘Oh, I know,’ she said, eyebrows arching slightly as she drank her tea. ‘I heard.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nothing,’ she replied, a small smile on her face. ‘Just that John texted us to say he’d met Patrick.’

‘That’s it?’ I asked, very unhappy about this group text that I was clearly not a part of. ‘That’s all he said, that he’d met him?’

Lucy laughed and pushed the biscuit barrel towards me. ‘I think John might be the only person on the planet who doesn’t have your number,’ she replied. ‘Had any more weird texts lately?’

‘Yes, several, all shit,’ I replied bluntly. I snatched up a cookie but she had to be a fool if she thought she could placate me with anything less than a caramel chocolate digestive. ‘What else did John say?’

‘He said Patrick brought cupcakes,’ she said, picking up her tea and taking a long sip.

‘And?’

‘He said Patrick brought cupcakes and that he was a bit rude,’ she admitted. ‘Maybe he misunderstood something, I’m sure Patrick wasn’t openly rude.’

‘No, he wasn’t,’ I corrected. ‘He gave John the cupcakes, that’s not very rude, is it?’

‘No,’ Lucy replied with a firm shake of the head. ‘Very generous.’

It was fair to say, I thought, watching a tiny bird dart in and out of the hedge at the bottom of the garden, that Patrick wasn’t always the sort to bend himself over backwards with new people, but he wasn’t talking shit about people he’d just met in a group text either. Neither Patrick or John were about to win a Miss Congeniality award.

‘It’s a shame we didn’t get to see him, I would have liked to have said hello,’ Lucy said, ever the diplomat. ‘Things are still going well though?’

Happiness blossomed in my belly, smothering any lingering annoyance. ‘Luce, it’s so good,’ I confirmed, a blush rising in my cheeks. ‘Like picking up exactly where we left off. Maybe a few days before we left off, the same but different.’

‘Please don’t start talking about all the amazing sex you’re having or my baby will just fall out,’ she said, holding up a hand to stop me. ‘I can’t bear it.’