Faith pointed to a canvas on the far side of the room. ‘Hey, I think I know that woman.’

Fred laughed. ‘I’m sorry, I’m getting a little deep and feeling here, aren’t I?’

‘Hey,’ I chimed in, ‘don’t apologise for feeling good about this.’

‘If anything, we actively encourage more self-praise as part of this friendship group.’ Lily held out her hand, then, and said, ‘Lily. This hot mess is Betty.’

‘Pleased to meet you,’ Betty added, then went one step further and pulled Fred into a hug. ‘This is a mighty fine display of female you’ve got yourself here.’

Fred was laughing when she pulled away. ‘Can I put that on a flyer?’

‘I’ll be offended if you don’t.’ Betty looked around to where the others were standing. ‘Left to right, you’re looking at the arses of Molly and Cora. They’re beautiful humans but they’re literally juuust learning what it’s like to openly talk about having a vagina.’

‘That’s unfair,’ Lily leapt in. ‘Cora’s quite good at it.’

‘Which essentially means that this place will be a maze of experience for them,’ Faith added.

‘I find that my body is usually a maze of experience for other women.’ When I looked around at Fred I saw she was already looking at me as she spoke, and I flushed. ‘Unfortunately, though, there are elbows I need to brush with. It’s been so lovely to meet you three.’ She hugged them all one after the other. ‘And please tell Molly and Cora that I’ve got some diagrams they might find helpful.’

Lily and Betty laughed, meanwhile Faith said, ‘I wouldn’t mind taking a look at those.’

I tapped her arm. ‘Like you need them.’

‘You’re all welcome to stick around, of course. I don’t know whether you have plans?’

‘I do,’ I answered. ‘I’m about to take five women out for dinner.’

‘And drinks,’ Betty added. ‘You should come and meet us later, though, if you’re free?’

‘Yeah, how does it all work, post-opening?’ Lily asked.

Fred looked around the space and rubbed her forehead again. I’d never seen her so red-cheeked – apart from immediately after a climax, but that hardly counted. ‘I honestly don’t know. I – I might be around later, I don’t know.’

‘No pressure,’ Faith said. ‘Give Edi a text.’

‘I’ll do that.’

‘And in the meantime go and be a fucking superstar,’ Betty instructed and Lily, who had looped arms with her, nodded in support. ‘You’re a machine.’