‘Yes,’ I said as smoothly as possible, agreeing enthusiastically with this imaginary conversation my mother and I had definitely, absolutely had. ‘I am very particular about music, very much wanted to be in charge of that, so no need to bother Huw.’

The rugby shirt looked me up and down and shrugged. Clearly he considered this my loss. ‘Shall we have a look in the kitchen?’ he suggested.

‘I promised I’d FaceTime Jo,’ I said, looking past him into a stainless-steel miseryland. ‘Show her the venue.’

‘That’s nice,’ Mum said. She ran a fingertip along the windowsill and her shoulders sank. ‘Don’t let her go without us saying hello.’

‘So she’ll answer the phone to you, will she?’ Dad chuntered as he followed on into the kitchen. ‘Tell her we need to have a conversation about her last phone bill. There’s a cap on her data usage for a reason, she’s supposed to be in Cambridge to work.’

I returned to the lobby, smiling briefly at an older gentleman on his way into the changing rooms as I found my sister’s contact info.

‘What?’

Jo appeared on the screen in front of me, bored before we’d started.

‘I’m at the tennis club where Mum and Dad want to have the wedding,’ I said, flipping the camera to show her the lobby. ‘It’s a bit sad.’

‘It’s murder–suicide depressing,’ she replied.

Jo’s face truly was perfection, like a Disney princess come to life, little pointed chin, bright blue eyes and long, glossy brown hair she had pulled back in the perfect messy bun, one it would take me an hour to achieve.

‘What do you want?’ Jo asked, driving the heel of her hand into her eyes. Her dark circles only served to emphasize her fragile prettiness. Who looked better when they were tired? My genius sister.

‘I thought you’d want to be involved,’ I replied, flipping the camera back to selfie mode and rubbing at my own dark circles. ‘Since you’re not here.’

‘Don’t try to guilt-trip me because it won’t work.’ She shoved a pencil into her bun and pouted. ‘I’ve only got two months until the semester starts, I haven’t got time, Ros. I’ve said I’ll show up but honestly, I don’t know why you or Mum and Dad expect me to be happy about their celebrating the fact they’re spent more than half their lives reinforcing one of the key institutions that props up the patriarchy.’

‘Jo,’ I said, too tired to get into it. Two months until the semester started and she didn’t have time. Because it wasn’t as though I had a job or anything.