‘Fair enough,’ I muttered. ‘We’ll come back as soon as it gets married and they’ve left for their honeymoon.’

John stood beside us, still in his skates. With the added inches, he looked as though he was about to climb down a beanstalk. There ought to be a height maximum for men in skates, I decided. Anything over five ten was ridiculous.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ he said, quirking his mouth into a smile. ‘Stay right there.’

Carefully, he padded over to the check-in desk, pointing back at me and Lucy as he turned his sleepy smile on the girl behind the counter.

‘What’s he doing?’ I wondered aloud as she nodded eagerly and disappeared into the little room where they kept all the skates.

‘Maybe he’s asking if they’ve got kneepads for you,’ she replied. ‘Or a nice helmet.’

I narrowed my eyes and slurped through the straw until her carton was empty.

‘Here we are.’ John returned to our spot with a proud look on his face and an ancient wheelchair in his hands. ‘Let’s go.’

‘I fell on my bum,’ I said, shifting in my seat to test said body part. Nope, too sore to sit on. ‘I don’t think I need a wheelchair.’

‘It’s not for you,’ he replied pointedly before nodding at Lucy. ‘It’s for you. Hop in and I’ll take you round.’

Lucy clapped gleefully, transferring herself into the other chair and cheering as John pushed her onto the rink. Propping my chin up in my hand, elbow on the table, I watched them circle the floor, Sumi, Jemima, Adrian and the rest hooking onto John’s waist in a long conga line of skating-rink goodness.

‘Ros!’ Sumi wailed. ‘Get your fucking arse back out here.’

‘It’s my fucking arse I’m worried about!’ I shouted back, blanching as a woman and her young daughter walked by. The little girl’s eyes bulged and she grinned. ‘Sorry,’ I said, apologizing profusely to the mother and forcing myself to my feet. ‘Very sorry.’

With an awkward limp, I shuffled back onto the rink and waited for them to circle back around.

‘Watch out!’ yelled Adrian at the back of the train. ‘Here we come!’

I reached out my arms and grabbed hold of him around the waist, squealing with laughter as I was pulled along by my friends.

‘Feels like we were just here yesterday,’ Adrian shouted over his shoulder.

‘I know,’ I replied, happily clutching his belt loops and ignoring the throbbing pain in my left hip as we whirled around, more and more people joining the back of the chain until everyone in the rink was part of it, all of us skating together. ‘Isn’t it brilliant?’

Sumi’s birthday party was officially a success.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘Another round?’