‘Speaking of being ruined …’ I opened my underwear drawer and pulled out two pairs. ‘Betty is in no fit state to drive. She texted me like, three hours ago and it didn’t sound like she was decent.’

‘When is she ever?’

I laughed. ‘That’s fair.’ I stuffed the underwear into a bag and crossed to my wardrobe. Everything in me wanted to pull out the soft jumpers, curl into a ball and call it a day. But instead, I reached for the green and white floral-print dress, cut just above the knee, that I felt both sexy and comfortable in. Because balance. I folded it over and tucked it into the bag.

‘Take a cardi.’

‘Is that your way of telling me you love me?’

She frowned. ‘Well, yeah. I’m not just going to come right out and say it.’

‘So you’re driving me and Cora. Who’s driving Betty?’

‘Faith.’

I felt like a traitor, but my stomach turned at the thought of Molly moaning about Patrick for a car journey. ‘And Molly?’

‘Also with Faith.’ Lily let out another little laugh. ‘Out of all of us, Faith will need a drink the most by the time we get to where we’re going. Molly is weirdly beat up over the Patrick thing, don’t you think?’

‘A little?’ I added a black cardigan to my bag. ‘But maybe she’s got a lot invested?’

Lily shrugged. ‘She’s of an age, I suppose.’

‘What, you mean our age?’

‘Well, yes, chronologically. I more mean Molly is a settling-down type, which is absolutely fine; cannot lean on that hard enough. But she’s on the wrong side of twenty-five and she hasn’t met the man she’s going to marry yet, and I think, I don’t know, women like Molly are conditioned to feel bad about that, aren’t they?’ she asked, like it wasn’t a sociocultural question with a crushing weight attached. ‘She’ll meet someone when she’s good and ready, or she won’t and that’s actually fine as well. But because she lands so hard on the must-get-married mentality, when she meets someone she sometimes goes all in.’

‘Are you turning Molly into a textbook case?’

‘No, babes.’ She took a long swig of her coffee. ‘Society did that.’

There was a sting to what she’d said, even though it was nothing I disagreed with. It sent me catapulting back to thoughts that I still wasn’t sober enough to grapple. ‘Do I have time for a shower?’

She checked her watch. ‘Sure, I’m not your keeper.’

I kissed her on the head on my way out of the room, but she caught hold of my hand and pulled me back. ‘You absolutely don’t have to answer this.’ I suddenly felt a desperate need for a nervous wee. ‘But are we going to talk about what you told me and Faith last night?’