‘How fucking dare you!’ Caro forgets their guests, forgets that this row is supposed to hissed and whispered, forgets that they are supposed to be putting on a façade to the rest of the world. She throws what remains of her soda water in his face and turns on her heel, slamming her way out of the house. Rupert stands there, face dripping wet and aflame with embarrassment as their guests turn to stare.

‘Rupert, darling, are you OK?’ Sadie is by his side in an instant, dabbing at his face with the bell sleeve of her dress. He brushes her aside, her attention only serving to irritate him.

‘Sorry, folks, it looks like the party is over.’ Rupert claps his hands together. ‘Thank you for coming everyone, but yeah… it’s time to leave. Thank you for your time.’ He starts to usher people towards the door, many of them too embarrassed on his behalf to say anything.

Sadie loiters, and Rupert lets Miles call her to the door. ‘Sorry, old chap,’ Miles gives him a sheepish grin, ‘I’m sure she’ll calm down soon.’

‘Call me if you need to.’ Sadie presses her lips to Rupert’s cheek, and he is relieved when finally, everyone has left. He’s cleared away the glasses and bottles and is upstairs listening to Caro’s mobile ring downstairs when he hears the slam of the front door. He ends the call and waits as her footsteps march up the stairs and she throws open the bedroom door, clearly still unhappy.

‘So, you decided the party was over as well, did you?’ She stands there, her chest heaving, her eye make-up a dirty smudge around her eyes.

‘Caro, you didn’t give me much option. You stormed out. You threw a drink over me in front of everyone.’

‘You want to abort our baby. You think you get to make the decision, but it’s mine, Rupert, do you understand? It’s my decision, it’s my body.’

There is a tinge of hysteria in her voice and Rupert struggles to squash down a sigh. It’s going to be another of those nights, of Caro repeating herself, and Rupert trying to explain and then reassure her, until finally, probably in the grey dawn hours, she will be so exhausted she’ll fall asleep and he’ll have to go to work on no sleep, with the very real fear that he’ll come home to blood in the bath, or an empty pill bottle.

‘That’s not what I said, Caro.’ Rupert feels the uphill battle start, already weary at the thought of the climb. ‘I said we need to talk about it, think things through properly.’