To my absolute amazement, I am not grossed out. My cheeks are not that red.

He continues: ‘There are so many things I like about you, Ol. I admire how strong and independent you are, the way you put yourself first. I think it’s something society envies: someone who doesn’t people-please or do things “just because”. You really are unapologetically YOU! Never change. Happy Birthday Olive!’

‘Happy Birthday Olive,’ all my friends say in unison. Except Isla, who I notice has just slipped back inside.

I kiss Marcus and take a few minutes to enjoy the moment. ‘That was lovely, I’m just going to pop inside for a minute.’ When I get to the kitchen, Isla is leaning over Cec’s big kitchen island. The one she broke down on just a few months ago when she was making Cec’s baby shower bunting.

‘Isla – what is it?’

She sighs. ‘Let’s go into the living room.’ I hate how serious her voice sounds.

We sit on Cec’s squishy sofa. It feels eerily quiet. Everyone else is outside in the sunshine.

‘What have I done? Have I murdered someone in your family without remembering?’

‘OK, let me get this off my chest. I’m really sorry it’s your birthday but I’m just desperate to clear the air. And before I do, I know you are going to think I am bonkers.’

‘Go on.’

‘There’s a deeper reason why I’ve responded to things so badly recently – your journalism about being child-free and, you know, anti-birth—’

‘I’m not anti-birth,’ I laugh. ‘That’s ridiculous. Birth is pretty necessary for the human race to carrying on surviving. I don’t want a kid, but that doesn’t mean I want the whole human race to die out.’

‘OK, but you’ve been writing a lot about how you find the idea of birth and motherhood traumatizing.’

‘Yeah, I do, though. That’s how I feel about it, that’s just my point of view. I am entitled to that, Isla. I don’t judge you because you want a baby, so why are you judging me because I don’t?’

‘OK, well, I don’t know if you remember, but a couple of years ago, on a drunken night out, we were discussing … my options. And I know it perhaps wasn’t a totally serious conversation, but I remember you saying that, if it ever came down to it, and I couldn’t have kids, that you’d be a surrogate for me.’

Did I? What what what?

Oh my god, maybe I had watched that episode of Friends. The one with Phoebe and her brother. She made it look really easy. It would not be appropriate to joke about this right now, Olive.

‘Isla, I’m so sorry, but I really don’t remember that.’

‘It’s OK. I feel really weird bringing it up after all these years.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘We were in that pub on George Street and I was talking about my health issues and how, one day, I might need to use a surrogate. How it’s a totally feasible thing these days. Obviously, Bea and Cec were trying for their own, but you said … you said something that I took to mean you would be open to it. You said you’d do that for Mike and me. I know this sounds a bit crazy, and it was such a long time ago, but it just really stuck with me. You sounded supportive.’