Evie had two brothers, Bill and Derek, both married. Donna, the vegetarian who was causing Evie such food-stress, was married to Bill. Derek’s wife was much more practical but she always made Evie feel like a bit of an idiot. It was probably because Sarah never saw Evie in her working environment, running a team of sales staff, but only when she was being domestic, and not making a good job of it.

Evie’s own sister was the eldest of the family. Diane was married to a lovely man called William who always reminded Evie of a Labrador, friendly and always trying to be helpful – not always succeeding. Diana nagged him horribly, Evie felt. But then Diane nagged everyone, especially Evie.

They all had two children each, and Evie always called them the wrong names which caused huge offence although Evie had no idea why. She always got people’s names wrong – as had their mother before her.

Christmas Eve went well, Evie felt. She had bought things to add to the children’s stockings and had even bought stripy socks and filled them for the adults. This had kept everyone in bed for a bit longer than usual on Christmas morning, giving Evie time to defrost croissants and make Buck’s Fizz. Her sister would disapprove of champagne at breakfast, even if it was mixed with orange juice. Donna would sweetly but firmly refuse all the organic, wheat-free, stone-ground, air-dried, free-range cereals that Evie had bought on spec, and eat half a banana and some wheat germ, produced from her own bag of healthy supplies. The men would probably demand eggs and bacon and there was no telling what, if anything, the children would want for breakfast, they were probably full of chocolate already.

The present opening would go on after lunch so now, after breakfast, and with a huge effort, Evie managed to get them all to go for a walk. She didn’t go with them, she wanted to fiddle with the vegetables and wonder what to cook for Donna. Donna had asked her what she was getting for Christmas dinner. Evie had said it was a surprise.

Annoyingly a fine rain descended and the walkers came back early. Evie had depended on them being out until at least midday giving her plenty of time to cook. Edward, she decided, was a figment of her imagination. She’d so wanted to meet a nice man who’d cook a vegetarian dish for her she’d created one in her head.