Through double doors, she saw a crowd of people milling about laughing and talking. They were obviously enjoying themselves. She could walk over, crack a joke, smile, laugh, be just like them. They were no different to her, were they? Not on the surface, anyway. She slipped past the doors and followed a sign on the wall to the ladies’, relieved on reaching it to find she had it to herself. The facilities were surprisingly generous. An ornately framed mirror hung over each of the three wash-hand basins with a matching full-length one fixed to the wall at the end. On one side of this sat two velvet-covered chairs angled to face each other. They offered a comfortable place to sit. Perhaps she could simply stay there. Lorraine was bound to come in at some stage during the evening. Allison could sit on one of the chairs, wait till she did, say hello, wish her a happy birthday and make her exit.

She could. The lighting in the room was flattering. Allison smoothed a hand down the fabric of her dress and walked towards the full-length mirror. It was exactly as she’d imagined she’d look. It hadn’t transformed her into the life and soul of the party but she looked glamorous, attractive and like other women she’d admired who were dressed up for a night of excitement. Not a woman who came to a party to hide in the toilets. Allison was a grown woman, an accountant, not a child. Plus, it was a bloody expensive dress; showing it off would go somewhere toward justifying the ridiculous amount of money she’d paid for it.

When she returned to the landing, there was a group of people heading into the venue. She didn’t recognise anyone but tagged along with the laughing group until they were inside, where the noise was slightly louder than it had been downstairs in the pub. A few people were gyrating on the small dance floor, hands pumping the air with enthusiasm in time to the beat of a song Allison didn’t recognise.

She looked around for the birthday girl but couldn’t see her in the crowd. When her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside the room, she recognised a couple of people from the office; they raised their hands in greeting when they saw her but made no effort to invite her to join them.

A rising tide of red crept over her cheeks, her eyes flicking to the doorway as panic’s icy fingers gripped and squeezed. There were so many people between her and the exit, she wasn’t sure she could make it.