We giggle like teenagers as we thank the departing couple and sink into our newly claimed seats with sighs of bliss. Toby stands up again and lays his coat over the arm of the chair. ‘What do you want to drink?’

‘I’ll have a pint of pale ale.’ I unzip my coat and hold my hands out toward the wood burner that’s emitting just the right amount of heat.

‘And the mushroom hotpot?’

‘Yeah; and get some crisps for while we’re waiting.’ I giggle again, feeling giddy with our sudden escape from domesticity.

While Toby’s at the bar putting in our order and chatting to Mike, I glance around to see if I can recognise anyone. There are a few semi-familiar faces, but no one I know that well. I’m finally warm enough to wriggle out of my coat. I resist the urge to look at my phone. Tonight is about relaxing. Before too long, Toby returns with our beers. We clink pint glasses and take long sips. He drops two bags of salt and vinegar crisps onto the table and I tear one of them open and take a handful.

‘Well, this is nice,’ I remark.

‘Yeah, definitely one of my better ideas.’ Toby grins. ‘Are we good?’

I frown. ‘Good?’

‘Yeah, you know, after the whole Madeline thing.’

I feel my blood pressure rising just at the mention of her name. ‘Shall we not talk about that tonight?’

‘Fine by me. But…’ He hesitates. ‘I was going to tell you about the surprise.’

‘What surprise?’

‘You know, the one I was talking to Madeline about that day.’

‘Oh.’ I’ve been trying to put that day out of my head. I hadn’t been sure if Toby was being entirely truthful, or whether he was making up a ‘surprise’ to throw me off the scent of whatever else they might have been doing. Thinking about the whole incident was making my head hurt. I decided that I preferred to forget about it and give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, I really couldn’t picture him and Madeline together. I couldn’t imagine him betraying me, as well as his brother. It would be beyond reprehensible.

It seems that all our topics of conversation tonight are going to be minefields. Perhaps we should have stayed in and watched TV after all.

‘Okay. So, what’s the surprise?’ I take a sip of my beer and wish there was no surprise at all, and that he’d never had to meet up with my sister-in-law.