Hermione played on the mat laid out on the café floor. Chubby, smiley, an easy baby who slept through the night, Penny couldn’t have been luckier with how the first twelve months of her baby’s life had gone. They’d been a unit, a team of two, right from the moment she held Hermione’s tiny, six-pound-two-ounce body in the hospital ward, crying – sobbing, really – and knowing, right in that moment, that everything she had hoped for herself had materialized through a pathway she could never have imagined.

‘One year old, I can hardly believe it!’ Uncle David said, arranging glasses and a big ice bucket for the champagne on the counter of Bridges. Eric stood beside him tying helium balloons to the backs of some chairs, spitting the odd swear word when his manly fingers proved too chubby for the fine work of knotting the latex.

‘Darling, how many times are you going to say that today?’ Eric said sweetly, finally getting a knot in a green one.

Uncle David scowled, making Sharon and Luke laugh.

‘What’s funny?’ asked Mia, from where she played with Hermione and Jonny on the playmat they’d put down in the corner.

‘Uncle David, Mia,’ replied Penny. ‘He’s getting all emotional, and it isn’t even his birthday!’

Faint music came over the café sound system just then, and Stuart said from near the coffee machine, ‘Music maestro, at last! It’s not a party without some music!’ Safiya, his new wife, stood beside him.

‘You’re so clever, baby,’ she said, in a teasing tone. He grinned at her. She grinned back.

‘Oh, amazing,’ said Sharon, as Francesco came out from the kitchen with two platters of finger food. ‘Look at that! God, it’s sexy that you can cook, Francesco.’

Francesco chortled. ‘Oh, I know all about finding chefs sexy,’ he winked, and Penny pulled a face that was the exact opposite of sexy.

‘There she is,’ said Francesco. ‘My hot girlfriend, looking her best.’ He wandered over and gave her a kiss, Penny accepting it gratefully.

It had taken Penny some time before she was here, in this moment, to figure it all out – life, and everything like it – and to say out loud what she wanted. It had taken her time to understand she could have boundaries, and that saying no is as important as embracing a yes. It had taken hard-fought lessons to arrive at herself, but with Hermione against her naked chest that very first time – skin to skin contact to encourage bonding from the off – Penny knew: taking time is the whole point. She could see it now. Life is about how you handle being thrown off course, not discounting yourself from the race because you were thrown off course in the first place. And look where her life had brought her.

‘Knock, knock,’ came a voice at the doorway, ‘I come bearing presents …’