“She isn’t? That’s a shame.” This was news to Annie. She’d have thought Colette and Ed would be there in advance of the party to support Kim.

“I know, right? Apparently Ed can’t get away from work.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, I totally get that, but still...”

Kim chitchatted on about this and that and old times, trying to catch up on everything that had happened in Annie’s life since they’d seen each other the year before last.

Of course, Annie didn’t utter a word about her business worries or the fact that her life had only recently turned into a complete disaster, and she and Charlie were facing a scarily uncertain future—something made all the more acute as Kim then chattered animatedly about last-minute preparations and hitches with the launch, and all her grand plans for the party.

Talk about chalk and cheese...

Conversation ebbed and flowed along the journey until, eventually, they reached the outskirts of Sorrento. The only one really talking by this point was Charlie, who had a thousand and one questions to ask Kim.

His lively chatter automatically quieted Annie’s discomfort and mercifully also seemed to distract Kim.

Once she and Charlie were checked into their room at the Excelsior, agreeing to meet Kim back downstairs once they got settled, he was in her ear.

“Can I go down to the pool now? Please, please, please?”

“Go on then, munchkin,” she teased fondly, as he ran to the bathroom to get changed, then took off for the water at breakneck speed once they got back down.

As she kept an eye on her son from her vantage point beneath an umbrella at a nearby patio table, Annie couldn’t believe that here he was, actually running and bouncing around the part of the world in which he was conceived.

How had the time gone by so quickly? It felt like only yesterday that she’d found out about his impending arrival once she’d returned back home, and became desperately worried about how she was going to cope.

She looked up now to see Kim approach with her phone to her ear, and a concerned look on her face.

“Everything OK?” she asked once her friend was off the phone.

“Sure...” Kim replied distractedly.

“OK, let’s try that again,” Annie said balefully, lowering her sunglasses as she stared at her. “It’s me you’re talking to, remember? And it might have been a while, but I still recognize that look.”

Kim’s gaze shifted around uncomfortably.

Yep, something was definitely up.

Her friend sighed and this time looked her square in the eye.

“It’s just...there’s been a few issues with the launch lately.”

“What do you mean? You said in the car earlier that everything was ready to go.”