‘I guess at least it proves that it wasn’t Ben,’ Jack said, cautiously. ‘Who ghosted you, I mean.’ He added, brightly, smiling at Ben, ‘So now you guys can be friends.’

‘Yes,’ Ellen growled. ‘I suppose it does mean that.’ She gave Ben a haughty look. ‘But I never want to see or speak of your delusional sociopath of a younger brother again. Ever.’ She drained her wine glass. ‘If you and Alexa get married, it’s me or him coming to the ceremony …’ A pause, for her words to sink in. ‘And it better be me.’

Ben was grinning now. ‘Gotcha.’ He glanced at the bar quickly. ‘And look, I’m sorry … I’m sorry for the way I reacted. In the attic. Obviously, it was me, in a way. It just also wasn’t. So. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s fine.’ Ellen could see Alexa tapping her debit card on the reader at the bar. ‘I owe you an apology too. I’m not sure the attic was my finest hour. Or several hours. All things considered.’

Ben looked like he was going to say something, but Jack got there first.

‘I’m sorry too.’ He sounded solemn and rehearsed. ‘For the tweets.’ He looked at the table. ‘I shouldn’t have put your personal lives on the internet.’

Ben and Ellen exchanged an amused glance.

‘All’s well that ends well.’ Ben nudged Jack in the side. ‘You did get us rescued. If you hadn’t tweeted all about our teenage drama to the whole entire world, then the fire brigade never would have seen anything and wouldn’t have driven to our rescue. Hey, just think, we might still be stuck up there now.’

Jack looked at him. ‘I suppose so,’ he said, quietly. He continued, ‘And also, they gave me a promotion at work. Because of the thread, and it going viral and everything. I now work on the social media team.’ He looked at Ellen.

‘Wow. Nice one, Jack.’ Ellen reached out and grabbed his shoulder to give it a squeeze. Everything she heard about Jack’s company baffled her.

Alexa returned to the table just in time to stop anything becoming awkward and placed a large glass of white wine in front of Ellen.

‘Get that down you,’ Ben said, pointing to the wine.

Dutifully, Ellen took a generous swig. Alexa, detecting the shift in atmosphere, gave Ben a kiss on the cheek. Ellen cocked an eyebrow at them both.

‘So, what time is everyone going to arrive at the house on Saturday?’ Alexa asked, taking charge. ‘Maybe we could all have dinner together in the evening, or something?’

‘I could bring some spare vegetables from the office,’ Jack offered, eagerly.

‘Sounds good.’ Ellen felt a rush of warmth which could only be attributed in part to the wine. ‘I’ll be there about lunchtime, I reckon.’

‘OK, great – same,’ Jack said, quickly.

‘Me too,’ said Alexa.