‘Yeah but—’ The sound of my mobile cut me off. ‘This is probably Betty calling to tell me that Faith has blurted out the time I—’ Fred. ‘Oh my God, Lily, it’s her.’ My phone had pulled in Fred’s WhatsApp display image and the sight of her set me reeling with warmth. ‘Do I answer?’

‘Do you answer?’ Lily was reaching for my phone. ‘Cora, get the—’

‘Cora, you dare.’ I cautioned her with a raised finger and she threw her hands up in submission. ‘I can do this.’ I exhaled hard, pulled in hard. ‘I can do this,’ I said again on my out breath, then I tapped the answer key before I could convince myself that I in fact didn’t have a sodding clue what ‘this’ was – or whether I could do it. ‘Hello?’

‘Put her on speakerphone,’ Lily snapped in a whisper and I followed instructions, lest she or Cora start another wrestling match for the phone.

‘I miss you too. Thanks for having let me know you were home.’ Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh— ‘Wow, that joke landed harder than I thought it would.’ There was a giggle of laughter at the other end of the line and next to me Lily made a poor show of stifling a snort of amusement too. It felt as though my stomach had been pumped full of bubbles, the small and joyous kind that happened if you squirted washing-up liquid at the right angle. ‘Are you hugging a toilet bowl still or have you recovered? I thought I’d leave you a few hours to make sure the alcohol was really on its way out of you.’

‘You’re … Wait, you’re okay with me?’

There was a long pause. ‘Did I miss something?’ Her voice still sounded light, like she was smiling. ‘Edi, please, do you think you’re the first woman to ever get pissed and text the wrong person on the way home? At least it wasn’t anything indecent. Unless you count emotion as indecent but, I don’t know, you don’t strike me as the type for that.’

‘This feels too easy,’ I pushed. Lily slapped my leg and I batted her away. ‘You’re really okay?’ I heard Cora sigh in the back seat. I wasn’t looking for an argument – but I had to check there wasn’t one there. With Rowan I usually found them days later, hidden down the side of the sofa or rotting at the back of the fridge; he’d always liked to let these things fester. But Fred …

‘Are you in a car?’ she asked, a rapid-fire change.

‘Yeah, my friend is driving, though. Girls’ night away, all very sudden.’

‘Sounds dangerous.’ She dropped her voice and I realised then that there was someone else with her. ‘Sure, I’ll be maybe a minute. Hey,’ she spoke to me again, ‘what’s the occasion for the girls’ night outta town?’