Penny looked at her sister, who had leaned in close to try and hear what Francesco was saying. Clementine nodded, furiously, as if to say, yesyesyes – say yes! But Penny couldn’t imagine what they might say to each other. Unless she did it – unless she told him how she felt. But her sister could literally be pregnant with her baby, and so what good would that do, now? She’d declare her love for him whilst also telling him she was potentially having a kid? It was hardly a seductive offer, was it? She’d already picked her path.

‘Okay,’ she said, in a small voice. ‘If you like. But can I tell you something first?’

‘Okay.’

‘Clementine had IVF today. With my embryo. As my surrogate.’

‘Wow.’

‘Yeah.’ Penny could feel her sister’s eyes on her. ‘I just wanted you to know,’ she said. ‘I know it’s weird.’

‘Okay. Thank you.’

‘Let me know when you’d like to meet up,’ she said, implying that if he didn’t want to now she was going ahead with the surrogacy, this was his get-out-of-jail card.

‘Are you in London for long?’

‘For two days now, and then I’m back again next week for two more days. By May I’ll be back here full time, I hope.’

‘Tomorrow then?’

Penny inhaled sharply. ‘Yes. Okay. Tomorrow.’

‘Let me think of a place and I’ll text you,’ he said, before hanging up the phone.

Penny didn’t sleep. Clementine could be pregnant. She was meeting Francesco for breakfast. Her uncle was at the pub with Eric, conducting the last parts of the paperwork for a potential sale that meant she stood to get a cash injection of almost thirty thousand pounds – enough for more or less two years’ maternity leave when the time came. She was due to return properly to Bridges in a month, and had ideas about new dishes for the summer menu. It would be so wonderful to go back to working only days.

‘You awake?’ said Clementine through the crack in the door. Penny was staying over since Stuart was still in her flat. Plus, Penny had wanted to be close to her sister.

‘I have been all night,’ Penny said.

‘Me too,’ said Clementine. ‘So much is happening.’

‘Do you have those undereye patches I can borrow? The ones that will get rid of my bags?’

Clementine handed over one of the mugs she was carrying and sat on the bed beside her sister. ‘You bet,’ she said. ‘But first: coffee.’

‘I like your style,’ said Penny. ‘Thanks.’