She rolled her eyes. She knew it was immature, and she hated it – she wasn’t a little girl any more, she had grown-up decisions to make about things like Kevin, and when it was right to have sex with someone, which was one of the things she was going to ask Anne about – but somehow her parents always brought out her childish side. She hated it, but she simply couldn’t help it.

Ironically, on the way home from Gran’s the other day, her mum had admitted, You know, Mags, I’m forty-one years old, but I still feel like a naughty teenager when I’m talking to your gran.

So maybe it would always be this way.

‘What is it, Dad? I’m late.’

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘You’re late? I’ve never known you to worry about that before, but I’m glad you’ve finally seen the value in punctuality. Let’s hope this new approach lasts until Monday morning when it’s time to leave for school.’

‘Very funny, Dad.’ It actually was quite funny. Her friends all thought her dad was hilarious, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. ‘You do know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, don’t you?’

‘I’ve heard that,’ he said. ‘And I’m sorry to cause you distress by violating your new-found sense of punctuality by making you even later, but we need to discuss this.’ He shook the piece of paper. ‘It’s the phone bill, in case you were wondering.’

The phone bill. Of all things, that was what he wanted to talk about?

‘Do we have to do it now, Dad? Can’t it wait? It’s only a phone bill.’

‘Only a phone bill for one hundred and’ – he peered at the total – ‘seventy-six pounds, and nineteen pence.’

‘So?’ Maggie said. ‘I didn’t make all the calls.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Not all of them. But the majority.’

‘There’s no way I made the majority of calls,’ Maggie replied. ‘James is always on the phone.’

‘That’s probably how it appears to you. In the few gaps you leave each evening, he manages to squeeze in and grab a few minutes before you wrestle the phone back from him. But I think it’s fair to say you’re the primary phone user in this house.’

There was a long pause, which Maggie filled by shaking her head, the slowness of the shake indicating the depth of her disbelief.

‘That is so unfair,’ she said.