As I parked up, Christian and Lin were pushing together the two small tables to make one we could all sit around. Susie was gathering some extra chairs.

‘Where’s Leo this evening?’ I asked Christian.

‘Babysitter!’ he replied. ‘The perk of not being able to breastfeed.’

‘Lucky you,’ muttered Lucy.

Susie pulled out a chair for me to sit next to her and caught my eye. ‘How’s the, um, “birth mark” doing?’ she asked, indicating the inverted commas with her fingers before gesturing to the pram where Joni was lying, her eyes open and fixated on the ceiling lights.

‘Totally gone, thankfully,’ I smiled. ‘Naughty mummy.’

‘Phew,’ Susie breathed and turned to ask Lin to get two bottles of red wine from the bar, rather than one. ‘Don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood this evening.’

‘Birth mark?’ asked Lucy, startling me. I hadn’t realized she had heard. She pulled out the chair on the other side of me and sat down.

‘It’s nothing,’ I replied. ‘Just an accident I had with some fake tan.’ It felt like something had shifted between Lucy and me and I didn’t feel like sharing the moment with her. ‘Sorry I won’t get to meet Albie this evening,’ I said. ‘He looked so cute in the photo you sent.’

‘No, he’s at home with Oscar. We thought that getting me and my boobs out of the house might help him to feed from the bottle more readily this evening – out of sight, out of mind? Oscar’s going to try anyway.’ She paused. ‘He’s been amazing, all things considered.’

‘He’s still not taking the bottle easily?’ I asked. She shook her head in response.

‘I’m sorry.’

If I wasn’t mistaken, her eyes were filling with tears and they looked red. She took a large sip from the glass of red wine in her hand. She didn’t seem her usual bubbly self.

‘I just need to go to the bathroom, excuse me a minute.’ She knocked back another gulp of wine and edged out of her seat.

Lin returned from the bar and sat down opposite me.

‘So how are you finding motherhood, Lin?’ I asked, wondering if I should go after Lucy. I’d give it a few minutes then if she didn’t come out I’d go and see if she was okay.

‘I’m loving it,’ she smiled, squeezing Susie’s arm. ‘I’m just so proud of them both. I mean, it’s a rollercoaster all right,’ she glanced sideways at Lucy, who was on her way to the Ladies’. ‘Nothing can prepare you. The lack of sleep really gets to you, and his colic isn’t showing any sign of improving – yesterday, the doctor said it could last until he starts solids – but, on balance, we definitely won’t be putting Charlie up for adoption. Will we?’ She nudged Susie with her elbow.

‘No, definitely not!’ Susie smiled.

‘The only downer is that I’ve had to go back to work,’ she said, turning to face Susie and smiling doe-eyed. ‘I just want to be around them all day.’