‘Mine too,’ Faith said from behind her phone screen. She’d been on and off it for most of the afternoon and I wondered who’d got her attention – whether it was a safe dinner topic to bring up. Since her last relationship had gone south – ‘Of the equator kind,’ she’d said, with eyes that looked like infant pufferfish – Faith had been hesitant to get into anything serious. But she’d definitely been giving online dating apps a college try.

‘That’s settled, then,’ I tried to finish the debate before Molly could find something to object to. She hadn’t exactly been agreeable since we’d left behind talk of bridal gear. And I feared that if she brought up my waistline in the same mouthful as a comment about wedding dresses – well, if she brings up my waistline at all, I fact-checked myself – then I might disown her. On the tread to the restaurant, though, while we all chatted in our couples, Molly caught up with me and Cora.

‘Edi,’ she started, in a tone that was suspiciously sweet, ‘you know I only want the best for you.’

‘Where is this going?’

‘Nowhere. That’s literally all I came to say.’ She rubbed elbows with me. ‘Like, in life, I mean, too. I don’t just mean for the wedding.’

I pulled her close but kept walking. ‘I know, you dope.’

‘Edi will blatantly go for all of the chow mein in the world,’ I heard Lily say from behind us. ‘Valid life choice, of course. Faith, you’ll be on spring rolls, am I right?’

‘You’re not wrong.’

I wouldn’t have voiced it, but my heart felt fit to burst. To be surrounded by a bunch of people who knew me so completely was at once beautiful and weirdly overwhelming, and I couldn’t say where exactly the feeling had come from. But it was definitely there, fluttering about inside my ribcage like a confused sparrow. I decided to sit on it, though, and save it for the drunk speeches on the evening of the hen party. Molly probably already has hers drafted in the Notes app of her phone. I half-laughed and gave her arm another squeeze, and I made sure we sat next to each other at the restaurant, too. Although I still kept a watch on Faith and her influx of messages. I narrowed my eyes from across the table and she mouthed back, ‘Nothing,’ and stashed the handset away. She didn’t check it again throughout our three trips to the all-you-can-eat food carts.