Then one Sunday afternoon, they were taking a walk across Clapham Common when Jack announced, ‘I think we should start trying for a baby.’

Angie was caught completely off guard. They’d talked about having children, and agreed that they both wanted them, but she had assumed they were a long way off yet. She was only twenty-eight and making great strides in her career. Plus she loved the freedom that they had to go out whenever they wanted and book holidays at the drop of a hat. She’d always imagined she’d be well into her thirties before they started trying for a family. Surely they weren’t ready yet?

She turned to him in surprise. ‘Where has this come from, Jack?’

‘I’ve just been thinking about it a lot lately,’ Jack replied with a shrug. ‘We’re married, we love each other, what’s stopping us?’

‘Our lifestyle? My career?’

‘You’ll still have a career, Ange. I’m not asking you to become a Stepford wife. Many women build successful careers around their families, you know.’

‘What about our lifestyle, then? You won’t be able to go out till six in the morning and rock up pissed as a fart anymore, Jack.’

‘Ouch,’ he said, flinching away from her sheepishly. Then his expression became serious. ‘I’m done with it, Angie. I’ve had enough. I know I’ve been behaving like a total idiot over the last few months. I think I just needed to get it out of my system, and now I have.’

‘What’s brought on this sudden change of opinion?’ Angie asked.

‘I think I finally realised what a dick I was being on Friday night. I was sitting in a bar at 3am, staring at my beer, and I thought, What the hell am I doing here? I have a beautiful wife waiting for me in my bed at home. That’s where I want to be, not here in this dive.’

‘I’m thrilled that you’ve had such a life-changing revelation, Jack, I really am. But you’re not the one who has to carry the baby, go through the horror of labour and put her career on hold to care for a newborn. It’s my life that will change the most, not yours, and I’m not saying I don’t want children – because you know that I do. I just don’t know if I want them right now.’

‘Just think about it, Angie, that’s all I’m saying. Think about it.’

‘I will,’ she agreed, with no intention of actually doing so, and changed the subject.

Three months later she was pregnant.

Jack looked up from the barbecue now and saw her watching him. He gave her a thumbs up. ‘I think we’re about ready for those burgers, Ange,’ he called out to her, and she nodded and went back inside to fetch them. By the time she returned to the garden, Sophie and Alan had appeared through the gap in the fence.

‘I brought dessert,’ Sophie said, proffering a cheesecake and some ice cream.