By the following morning, Indie had emerged and was sunbathing by the pool, reading a magazine and eating a cheese sandwich, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

‘Glad to see Indie’s feeling better,’ Sophie whispered.

‘Yes, she’s calmed down now, thank goodness,’ Angie said. She gave Sophie a tight hug. ‘I can’t believe you’re going home today. I’ll miss you.’

‘I’ll miss you too,’ Sophie said. ‘But you’ll be back home before you know it, so just enjoy the rest of your holiday and think of us bored at home in Finchley.’

She heard their taxi pull up and they all piled in and waved out of the window as it drove away from the villa. In the distance she could see the Taylors standing side by side, waving back. She watched them until the car turned a corner and they all disappeared. Tom and Katie, distraught about being parted from their friends, both started sobbing simultaneously and Sophie, who was sitting between them in the back seat, put a comforting arm around them both.

‘It’s okay,’ she told them. ‘It was a wonderful holiday and it’s natural to feel sad that it’s over but you’ll feel much better once you get home to your own rooms and your toys.’

‘Can we go on holiday with them again next summer?’ Tom asked.

‘Well it’s a bit early to plan that, love, but I’ll speak to Angie about it,’ Sophie assured him.

After a few minutes the children’s tears began to subside. Tom reached for his iPad and headphones, while Katie snuggled up to Sophie and closed her eyes. She glanced at Alan, who was in the front seat attempting to speak Greek with the taxi driver. The man was delighted by the stilted attempts of his English passenger to communicate in his language and was enthusiastically encouraging him, exclaiming ‘bravo!’ every so often. Alan, looking tanned and healthier than she’d seen him in a long time, was concentrating so hard on remembering the Greek words he’d been practising that he was oblivious to her gaze. As she watched him, she realised that they’d never had that night out together.

She turned her head to look out of the window, watching the horizon and the little boats dotted around the ocean as the car sped along the coastal road towards the airport. She felt a bit like the children, she realised, as though she’d been ripped from paradise and dumped back into real life against her will. They’d get home, Alan would sink down on the sofa and put the TV on, the kids would go off to their rooms to play and she’d start the mammoth task of working her way through the laundry. It was all so predictable.

She remembered what she’d told the children just minutes earlier, how they would feel much better once they got home, but at that moment all she felt was loss. Loss that the holiday was over. Loss that Angie got to continue her adventure with Jack while she had to go home, back to real life. She remembered her promise to herself the previous day. Things were going to be different when they got home. They had to be. Because she needed some excitement in her life.