I manage to drive the car home without killing someone or hitting a tree. To add to my stress levels, Tom’s mother, Ellen, is standing at my front door waiting for it to open when I pull up into the drive. I distinctly said ‘No need’ when she offered to come over and help with the preparations. ‘Everything is under control. Just arrive at two.’ Sweet Jesus, the woman is about two hours too early. It’s not that I don’t like Ellen, I do, I’m just not in the habit of small talk. I need to focus on making this party as good as it should be for the boys.

With my nervous breakdown put on hold, I take a deep breath, look up to the sky and exhale. Now is not the time, Sally. Hold it together until this evening when everyone has gone home. When the kids are asleep and Tom is opening a beer, expressing his delight at how great things went while I celebrate the fact that we don’t have to go through it again for another year. Usually I clink glasses with him. Not sure I will tonight.

‘Thought I’d lend a hand.’ Ellen approaches me, speaking in her usual happy-go-lucky voice. I’m lifting the cake from the back seat of the car, trying to ignore the fact that I did hear Tom secretly speaking to someone on the phone in the middle of the night.

‘Thanks, Ellen,’ I say, closing the door with my foot and carrying the cake up to the house where Amber is standing.

‘Is that the cake?’ Ellen says, her tone unable to hide how unimpressed she is.

‘She forgot to pick up the real one,’ Amber says.

‘Who’s she?’ Ellen says. ‘The cat’s mother?’

‘Oh!’ Amber doesn’t like being chastised by Granny Ellen.

‘If your mother forgot to pick up the cake, she must have been very busy.’ Ellen takes the cake from my hand and winks at me. ‘This one looks great.’

Inside, Cian and Aaron are running around, kicking balloons and mashing Rice Krispie cakes into the carpet. They’ve managed to make the place look like the party is over before it’s even begun.

‘What the hell, Amber?’

‘I didn’t know. I couldn’t hear them with my earphones on.’

‘Where’s your father?’

‘He had to go out. He said someone’s car broke down or something – I can’t remember who. He had to drop them to the golf or something. He said he wouldn’t be long.’