‘What for?’ She looks up from her curry and I sigh, the weight of what I’m about to admit pressing down on me.

‘For pushing you away in the way that I did. When I was diagnosed and my family were breathing down my neck like a bunch of wildebeests and everything was going to shit with work and Dom’ – I swallow as emotion threatens to clog my throat – ‘all I could see were people getting in my way and treating me differently. I felt so… suffocated.’

‘I know that, Lex.’ Sasha leans forward earnestly. ‘You don’t need to apologise for feeling trapped and overwhelmed. You dealt with it the way you had to.’

I hang my head slightly. ‘That’s fair to a certain extent. But I was so fed up with it all, I was ready to keep everyone who was suffocating me at arm’s length permanently – including you. I let you think you could move down here with me because it made my life easier at the time.’

I hear the air expelling itself from Sasha’s lungs as she digests this blow.

‘Obviously, I was being ridiculously self-indulgent,’ I rush to explain properly. ‘I realise that now and want you to know how sorry I am… and that I do really want you to move down. I’ve had to come clean because… you mean so much to me.’

I look up and see Sasha’s eyes are red-rimmed and brimming with tears. She’s quite rightly taking this personally.

‘It’s OK,’ she whispers. ‘Not a big deal.’

‘I don’t believe that for a second. You won’t tell me what a crap friend I’ve been, so I’ll do it myself. I’ve been a crap friend. All you were trying to be was the loyal and bloody marvellous rock I actually truly need in my life.’

Sasha’s tears are receding, which tells me I’m on the right track, so to add some humour, I get out of my seat and kneel down beside her theatrically. ‘Sash, will you forgive me for being a selfish cow and let me be your bestie for life?’

Sasha looks down at me and starts to giggle. ‘Of course I will, silly.’

I get up and hug her, and raucous applause breaks out across the restaurant. Startled, we both turn round to discover it’s being directed at us: all the customers and staff are grinning broadly at us, a few of them even looking quite emotional.

‘Congratulations!’ a woman two tables down from us shouts, setting off the applause once again.

Sasha and I look at each other and blanch.

‘Do they…’ Sasha is wide-eyed with shock.

‘Umm… I think so.’

‘Right… and now?’

‘We have to just go with it.’ I straighten up and give a feeble wave of thanks, then sit back down in my seat as we try desperately to stifle the giggles that have overcome us. ‘Sash, get that down you fast. We need to get out of here before someone asks us when the wedding’s going to be.’