‘It’s a big deal because of who it is.’

‘Oooh!’ Indie was intrigued now. ‘Are you shagging someone famous?’

‘No, it’s no one famous.’

‘So who is it?’ Indie saw one of the crew stand up and felt herself getting impatient.

‘Katie Brennan.’

‘Who?’

‘Katie Brennan,’ Freddy repeated. ‘She used to live next door to us in Pemberton Road? Her mum was good friends with our mum? Her dad shagged our mum?’

Indie nearly dropped the phone in shock. She hadn’t thought about that family in years. ‘What the hell, Freddy?’

‘I know, but it’s not like I planned it. I bumped into her in Oxford – she goes here too – and it just happened. There’s something between us. I can’t explain it.’

‘A shared history of fucked-up-ness?’

‘No, something real, Indie. I love her. I’m in love with her.’

Indie had never heard her kid brother use the L-word before. ‘Wow, Freddo, it sounds like it’s serious.’

‘It is, and that’s why I want to tell everyone, but the more I think about it, the more stressed out I get about it. What if Mum goes ballistic? What if Dad gets upset?’

‘It’s your life though, and if you want to spend it with the most inappropriate person you could ever have possibly found then that’s your decision.’

‘Thanks for the reassurance.’

Indie thought for a moment. ‘You really love this girl?’

‘Yes.’

‘And she really loves you?’

‘Yes.’

It had been more than ten years since Indie, intent on punishing her mother, had made her New Year’s Eve revelation. When she thought back to her thirteen-year-old self, she felt ashamed about how she had behaved. She had acted like the bratty little child that she was and, in turn, had hurt so many people. For years she had tried to justify it to herself – it was her mum’s fault not hers; the truth would have come out eventually anyway – but after her parents had divorced and Sophie and Alan had moved away, she had wondered over and over again if she had done the right thing. She had destroyed one marriage and possibly a second.

‘Are her parents still together?’ she asked now, already dreading the answer.

‘Apparently so.’

‘Blimey.’ She tried to sound nonchalant, but she felt a flood of relief. She had always liked Sophie. Even after Indie had done what she had done, she had been really nice to her. She hadn’t deserved what had happened to her. After they had moved away and Indie could no longer glare at Alan whenever she saw him in the street, she had instead directed her anger squarely at her mother, blaming her for ruining everyone’s lives, particularly hers. She had been too young then to understand the complexities of her parents’ marriage, her mother’s breakdown and all of the factors that led to the brief but destructive affair.

She had left home at the earliest opportunity, signing a modelling contract with her parents’ consent, and staying with her dad, or with friends, until she was old enough to get her own place.