Everyone in the room starts nodding and clapping. Bea puts her fingers in her mouth and blows a whistle. ‘I like her,’ she whispers to me. ‘She’s right – it’s not as binary as two sides of a coin; we all just make decisions as we go along.’

‘Yes exactly,’ I say. Maybe we’re having a breakthrough here; I feel another wave of relief that Bea seems to understand.

‘Thank you, Jemima,’ Iris says. ‘On behalf of everyone here, I just want to thank you for coming along tonight and making so many of us feel seen and supported. Please can I ask that no one asks Jemima for a photo or autograph tonight.’

Well, that settles that then. I put my phone away. What’s wrong with me? I never usually get starstruck like this.

‘Right, next up, we have Laura, let’s give her a huge clap please!’

Laura appears on stage and quickly ties her hair up in a high bun and pushes a pencil through it to hold it in place before speaking.

‘Hello everyone! It’s actually my birthday tomorrow – forty-four years old! All my life I’ve known I didn’t want kids, but things bed in a little easier as you get older. 1) You know yourself better! And 2) People don’t ask you as much! Once you reach a certain age as a woman, it seems like society just kind of forgets about you anyway. Where are the over-forties and -fifties on billboards, or on the covers of magazines? We’re kind of invisible, apparently. At least we stop getting nudged. I fucking hated my thirties, there was so much pressure! But I guess I should also say this: I am the CEO of a corporate child-free support network, a network I founded in my early twenties as an adamant child-free woman. And, well … I’m expecting.’ She places both her hands on her belly, looking a little sheepish but proud.

The room is silent. Iris looks around and I sense she’s going into crisis-management mode. Everyone’s mouths are hanging open. I look over at Bea and Colin and shrug. Someone drops a glass. Smash. The silence continues; time seems to stop still. Iris goes up and gently edges Laura off the stage, while the people in the crowd whisper amongst themselves. Laura looks as though she’s in a world of her own, stroking her belly.

Then one woman shouts: ‘But think of the environment, Laura,’ and tuts loudly.

Colin, Bea and I share an Uber home at around 10.30 p.m., gossiping in the back. So much drama in one evening! I get my Dictaphone out:

‘Olive checking in, recording part one of notes from Child Free By Choice evening. Ask Bea and Colin thoughts, will add to part two later. Do research on women who spoke tonight, see if there’s anything on Google. Write down bullet-point themes. Freedom. Money. Judgement. Work. Environment. Emotion. What felt weird about the club? What felt empowering? Where do I stand now? Pitch profile of Jemima separately to Gill. Follow up with Iris tomorrow.’