‘I’ll get it in a sec, but first I need to tell…’

His gaze had locked on something over Esther’s shoulder. She turned to see a willowy Asian girl, stepping into the kitchen, barefoot and wearing a long cotton T-shirt and boxers.

‘Mum, Mei Lin. Mei Lin, Mum,’ Dylan mumbled in a rush that managed to sound both sheepish and defiant.

‘Mei Lin. How nice to meet you.’ Esther offered her hand with a warm smile, hiding her shock so as not to add to Dylan’s discomfort, while inwardly absorbing the fact that the mountain of bedding, gazed on with such sentimental motherly relief and adoration a couple of hours before, had contained not one occupant but two. A one-night stand or something more? It was impossible to tell and even more impossible to ask. The girl, in contrast to the pair of them, was exuding genuine serenity, and in possession of the kind of beauty that made you want to stare: slim, shapely limbs, piercing, black eyes and long, inky hair, brutally shaved above one temple, but otherwise falling in silky swathes over her high pale cheekbones.

‘Good morning, Mrs Shaw.’ She withdrew her fingers the instant their palms made contact. ‘And many happy returns.’ Her voice was sweet and breathy and accented with the brand of cut-glass English produced by expensive private schooling. Eighteen or nineteen, Esther guessed, though the classically stunning features made it hard to tell.

‘Thank you, and please call me Esther…’ The T-shirt and boxers belonged to Dylan, Esther realised suddenly, a notion so ludicrous – that anyone should find appeal in her son’s underpants – that for one moment she almost burst out laughing.

‘I believe this is for you,’ Mei Lin went on, pressing a large envelope that she had been holding behind her back into Esther’s hands. ‘You left it upstairs, doofus.’ She pulled a face at Dylan, the mask of adult calm dissolving for a moment as she giggled.

‘How very exciting. Thank you.’ Esther made a jokey to-do of shaking the card, pretending to listen out for what it might contain. Inwardly, she was still computing the new situation. Among the groups who had passed through the house, there had to have been girls who weren’t just friends, but nothing had ever been made clear. A milestone moment, then, however one looked at it, despite being handled in typical Dylan-clumsy fashion. ‘First, shall I fix us all some brunch? I don’t know about you, but I’m—’

‘We’ll just grab some cereal and head off, if that’s okay, Mum,’ Dylan chipped in quickly. ‘I’m sure you’ve got stuff planned, anyway.’

‘Oh yes, I’m seeing a friend later.’ Esther busied herself with the kettle, making a cup of tea and keeping half an eye as the two of them settled side by side, passing sugar, milk, and cereal as if they did it every day of their lives.