‘Oh, this old thing?’ Penny asked, putting on a faux-shy voice as she fixed her seatbelt and leaned across to kiss Sharon’s cheek.

Penny revelled in the opportunity to get dressed up. She spent much of her life smelling, as Stuart lovingly joked, like burnt cream and boiled ham, so to shower with her favourite oils, and style her hair and wear a dress that she’d actually taken the time to iron, felt like stepping into a different side of her personality. She was always herself, but in a ruffled red midi dress she’d picked up at one of Stoke Newington’s Church Street boutiques, she felt girlish and pretty, and it was difficult to feel that way in the Crocs and chef’s whites of her day-to-day. She liked reminding herself she could be both versions of Penny.

‘No but seriously,’ said Sharon, getting a proper look at her. ‘I thought you were off men?’

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Are you telling me you’re not on the pull? That you wore false eyelashes for me?’

Penny reached for her face self-consciously. ‘Is it too much?’

‘No, no,’ Sharon insisted. ‘It’s the perfect amount.’

‘I just wanted to remind myself that I can be cute, when I try.’

‘You’re cute all the time!’ asserted Sharon.

‘You know what I mean,’ Penny said. ‘It’s not often I go out somewhere so fancy on a school night.’

‘You look gorgeous and if you wanted to tell me the same I wouldn’t be offended.’

Penny laughed. This is why she found it so easy to be around her – Sharon was fun and to-the-point and never took anything too seriously.

‘Sharon!’ she said, as if only now seeing her for the first time. ‘Look at you! You’re a knock-out!’

‘Why, thank you.’ Sharon pushed her forearms under her boobs to emphasize the low cut of her top.

‘I hope you’ve checked those things lately,’ Penny prompted, as the driver looked at them both in the rearview mirror.

Sharon nodded. ‘Once a month, in the shower, like you taught me,’ she replied.

Penny winked at her.

Sharon lived around the corner from the café with her partner and two kids in a Victorian terrace her parents bought for £260,000 twelve years ago, and was now, aided by London inflation, worth a cool £1.2 million. Sharon used to work in FinTech – financial technology – but gave it all up when she had kids to become a florist, age thirty-nine. She was talented, and did the flowers for Bridges. That’s how Penny had met her two years ago now.