Even at the end of the trip I was conscious of including Hannah. And I had to give it to her – on the way to the club, she had only mentioned once that she was the only single one in our group. As I read the drinks menu above the bar, I watched Hannah out the corner of my eye. Down the bar from us were two ridiculously handsome men – obviously gay, but completely gorgeous – and as soon as they saw Hannah, they broke into huge smiles. Hannah smiled back, and without a word she was gone. Gay men can be the best flirts.

While Josh and I ordered four Mythos beers, we watched as Hannah sidled up to the men and they signalled to the bartender to bring her a cocktail like theirs. I wasn’t insulted by Hannah deserting us for the gorgeous men. As a sometimes chronically single woman, I knew that attention from gay men counted in some weird way as attention from men.

Josh and I carried the beers back to a table next to the dance floor. Marie and Gary were dancing to ‘Groove is in the Heart’, an absolute favourite of mine, but they came over to the table when they saw us with the drinks. ‘Oh my god,’ said Marie, fanning herself with her hand as she sat down. ‘I love this 90s stuff! I can’t remember the last time we went dancing!’ She looked at Gary, as though asking if he could.

He smiled at his glowing wife and laughed, ‘Babe, I think it might have actually been in the 90s.’ I knew he was kidding, because they hadn’t been together that long, and they shared the joke with a laugh.

‘I love this music too,’ I said. ‘Although, it is weird that they’re playing the same stuff as when I was here a decade ago.’

‘I hope they play some Madonna,’ gushed Marie.

I raised my glass. ‘Last toast,’ I said, feeling a nervous twinge again – another last. ‘And then we can all hit the dance floor.’ Was that a groan from Josh? And if so, was it about the dancing or the toast? I wanted more than anything to dance with him – even though my expectations were not particularly high. That probably doesn’t sound very nice, but he was a geeky computer guy – albeit a sexy, geeky computer guy – so I wasn’t expecting much.

My thoughts of dancing with Josh had distracted me, and three faces looked at me expectantly. ‘To new friends, friends who became family.’ Marie tilted her head to the side and smiled.

‘To family,’ she said, clinking her bottle against mine.

Gary and Josh, repeated, ‘To family,’ and added their bottles to the clinking.

‘Hey,’ said Marie as she looked around. ‘Where’s Hannah?’

‘She’s otherwise occupied,’ replied Josh, signalling to the bar.

‘Ohhh!’ Marie’s reply was accompanied by raised eyebrows.