Hugging the cushion to his chest, Kev peered warily over the top of it. ‘A lot of people you knew from there have moved on. It’s a new crowd now.’

‘Then it’ll be nice to meet them. It’s been a while since we’ve had a party. We should both invite people from work. Come on, it’ll be fun.’

He didn’t reply, and she felt downcast, was relieved to hear the doorbell ring. ‘I’d better get that.’

She went downstairs to open the front door, and her mother walked in.

‘Ah,’ said Ursula, ‘so you’re home.’

‘Denny said you went next door to Nelson.’ Sasha followed her into the kitchen where her son was still on his phone. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

The last thing she needed was for her mum to charge in and make a difficult situation with their neighbour even more unbearable.

‘Building bridges,’ said Ursula, tying the apron around herself.

‘Here’s a thought, Mum.’ Sasha’s irritation got the better of her. ‘Maybe you could build a few bridges with your own husband before you begin diplomatic negotiations with next door.’

‘Stuart is a very sensitive man.’ Ursula grabbed the phone out of Denny’s hand and dropped it in her apron pocket.

‘Hey!’

‘I told you to stop playing it before I left and you didn’t listen,’ Ursula told him. ‘But now I’m back.’

‘Mum!’ Denny jumped up and down flapping his arms, but it was late, her son’s eyes were red with tiredness, he was totally wired from the countless hours of screen time, and Sasha was kind of relieved her mother had taken the decision into her own hands. Let Ursula be the bad guy for once.

‘Denny,’ she told him, ‘your nan’s right. It’s time for bed.’

He stomped off and pounded up the stairs as loudly as he could.

‘We had a lovely long chat,’ said Ursula.

‘Mum, Nelson is not our friend and I’d rather you didn’t go there to make matters worse.’

‘Oh, I did quite the opposite. I said very nice things about you and Kevin, I think I made him see you in a totally new light.’

The phone was still burbling in her mother’s apron pocket. Sasha could hear music and explosions and other sound effects coming from it.

‘He’s compiling a dossier about us to send to the council. Every time he hears a noise through the wall, whenever one of us coughs or farts, he writes down the date and time. Denny and Angel can be noisy, that’s teenagers for you.’

‘That doesn’t seem like him at all.’ Ursula didn’t look convinced. ‘Why would he do that?’