They’d barely pulled out of Anna’s road when Gabi had said in a very off-hand way, ‘Did I mention Jeremy is coming tonight?’

Anna had glanced sharply across at her friend in the passenger seat. Gabi had been sitting calmly, hands folded in her lap, the hint of an angelic smile on her lips. That had troubled Anna, because Gabi didn’t do cool and matter-of-fact. Gabi did squeals and smiles and showers of confetti. Over everything. The churning in the pit of Anna’s stomach had intensified.

‘Oh?’ she’d said, deliberately keeping her tone light. ‘Remind me who he is again?’ Even though she’d known full well that Jeremy was a pal of Vanessa’s. Even though she’d known he was a graphic designer and had an ‘amazing’ flat in Beckenham.

Anna had known it was only going to be a matter of time before that particular grenade landed because Gabi had been casually dropping his name into conversation for weeks now, almost as frequently as she hinted – not always so obliquely – that it was time for Anna to ‘move on’.

But Anna didn’t want to move on. She wasn’t ready.

However, the fact she’d said this a thousand times had obviously had no impact on Gabi at all, because there her friend was, smile barely contained, weaving her way through the crowded kitchen with a man in tow.

And the penny finally dropped. It hadn’t been her own romantic prospects Gabi had been getting all sparkly and hopeful about earlier on that evening – it had been Anna’s.

Anna turned to slip away in the opposite direction but found herself blocked by a gaggle of Vanessa’s beauty salon employees, blinged up and colourful like exotic birds. They’d set up camp next to the glass-fronted fridge containing nothing but champagne and didn’t seem inclined to budge.

‘I thought I’d lost you!’ Gabi said, breaking into one of her Julia Roberts-style grins. She glanced over to the man whose arm she had hold of, who, it had to be said, wasn’t looking as enthusiastic about this encounter as Gabi was. ‘This is Jeremy!’ Gabi said, with the same degree of fanfare more suited to announcing an Oscar winner. Tall with sandy-blond hair, Jeremy had the kind of sharp cheekbones that reminded Anna of the detective in the Swedish crime series she was currently bingeing on Netflix.

‘Remember I told you about him?’

Anna shot Gabi a look. Seriously? You’re really doing this?

Undeterred, Gabi countered with a look of her own – Don’t mess this up! – and carried on talking. ‘You know you were saying you wanted to try salsa classes? Well, Jeremy here has been going to some at the Civic Centre. He can tell you all about them.’ Gabi then came to the startling realization that everyone’s glasses needed topping up and, despite being right next to a fridge packed with champagne, skipped off in the opposite direction to find some. That left Anna and Jeremy staring awkwardly at one another.