Before she sat down, Lucy helped herself to a handful of green and red M&Ms from the ceramic dish in the centre of the coffee table, eating them one at a time, sucking on each until it dissolved in her mouth. Nate was doing the rounds with mugs of his boozy hot chocolate, and Lucy’s was on the table in front of her while she waited for it to cool.

And even though this wasn’t her family and she’d never actually had Christmas with so many people before, Lucy felt like she belonged. She was sure Will had something to do with that.

She popped the last M&M into her mouth as Will handed her a large sewing needle threaded with a long piece of thick cotton. She tied a knot in the end and speared the piece of popcorn she’d taken from the bowl next to her. It broke and she frowned at it.

Will, now armed with his own needle and thread, sat on her other side, close enough for his thigh to press against hers. As though she were fifteen and not a grown woman, she found herself wondering if people could tell that they’d kissed. Steph probably knew, she realised. She seemed like the type of person who would notice the tell-tale signs, like two thighs pressing together.

Still, nothing could be as embarrassing as what had happened with Jackie.

“The secret is to hold the needle perpendicular to the surface of the popcorn and press slowly.” Will demonstrated. “Then you gently pull the popcorn down to the end of the thread.” He held his up. “See?”

“Right.” Lucy was not going to be beaten by a piece of popcorn. She tried again and the second one broke. “Third time lucky,” she said gearing up to spear another piece. Broken.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so bad at this.”

Her giggle came easily, which surprised her. Maybe the ordeal with Jackie had inoculated her against any further embarrassment. She hoped so. Sometimes it was exhausting worrying about what other people thought all the time.

“Paper chains,” she declared, as though she was answering his question for the first time. In the end, she was happy just to sip her hot chocolate and watch the bustle around her, humming along to the music. When the first chains and strings of popcorn were finished, Bridget and Briony took charge of draping them on the tree. An hour or so later, the bottom half of the tree looked quite festive.

“Um, everyone,” Lucy called out above Bing and the hubbub of conversation. Everyone stopped talking and listened, their fingers still stringing and gluing. “Two things. One, I’ve just remembered that I’ve got my mum’s Christmas cake upstairs. I’d completely forgotten, but it’s lovely and I’m going up to get it now so you can all have some. And two. I think we need to do something about the tree.”

All eyes flew to the tree. “The top half is naked, and I’m afraid that won’t do.” This was possibly the longest Lucy had spoken in front of a group of people who didn’t report to her and she tried to count exactly how many hot chocolates she’d had. Was it three or four?