“Well done, Emma.” Leanne glares up at me from behind her neon fringe. “I’d just talked her down and you fired her up again.”

“She didn’t look very chilled to me.”

“You didn’t see her before. She was punching the cubicle walls. She nearly got us both thrown out.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

She pushes past me. “You never do, Emma.”

By the time I find the others, they’re standing in the centre of the dance floor downstairs with a circle of people surrounding them. Al is in the middle, jabbing her finger at Simone and some other girl I don’t recognise. Daisy and Leanne are either side of her.

“I fucking knew it,” Al says. “I knew you were sleeping with Gem.”

“Actually” – Simone squares up to her, even though she’s several inches shorter and several stone lighter – “Gem and I got together after we split up, not that it’s any of your business.”

“I think you’ll find it is.” Al turns her attention to the other woman, who takes a step closer to Simone and slings a heavy arm around her shoulders. She’s at least six feet tall, all sinew and muscle, with a heavy jaw and close-cropped hair. She’s got a boxer’s physique and the attitude to match.

“Think you’re clever, do you?” Al says. “Taking Simone off me?”

“I don’t think anything.”

“’Course you don’t. Pig shit doesn’t think.”

Boxer Woman smirks. “Piss off, Al. No one’s interested, least of all Simone. And for the record, I didn’t take her off you, she came running.”

“Bullshit. We were happy before you started sniffing around.”

“Is that so? According to Sim, you’re a possessive control freak who wouldn’t let her out.”

“Is that what you told her?” Al glares at Simone. “That I’m a control freak? After everything I did for you? When we met, you had nowhere to live. You had nothing, Simone and I let you live with me rent-free. I gave you money to go clubbing. I would have done anything for you.”

“You smothered me.”

Al’s eyes mist with tears. “Then you should have told me, not run off with this bull dog.”

“What did you call me?” Boxer Woman drops her arm from around Simone’s shoulders and takes a step towards Al. “Say that again to my face, you fat bitch.”