They didn’t have to wait long. A few days later Chloe woke up to find another envelope had been posted under her door, only this time it was something exciting. A pale cream envelope made of heavy paper. Inside was a proper, stiff card invitation with ‘Max’s 21st Birthday’ in gold calligraphy and a piece of paper with all the details. They were going to a house in the country for a weekend, and all they had to bring was black tie for Saturday night, swimwear and a bottle of champagne. Chloe smiled down at the invitation, glowing with pride at the fact that she’d been asked. How many other people had Max invited? Surely if they’d rented a house for the weekend, then it couldn’t be more than a handful. She had been chosen as one of his closest friends. She placed the invitation on her windowsill then re-read the information on the paper. But her excitement was punctured when her phone bleeped. It was Zadie.

‘I can’t believe it. Have you seen it?’

‘What?’

‘The invitation. For his damn party.’

Chloe wanted to be on Zadie’s side, but she was struggling to see the problem. ‘I got mine this morning. What’s wrong?’

‘He didn’t even ask me. He just did it. He didn’t tell me, he didn’t want my opinion. You know he’s invited less than twenty people, including us? That’s tiny. How is it going to feel like a party with such a small group?’

Chloe tried not to feel pleased. ‘It is his birthday, Zaid, I think we probably have to do what he wants.’

‘He’s invited the worst people, too. People from rugby. Their boring girlfriends.’

‘Maybe they won’t be as boring as we think they are.’

‘They’re on the netball team.’

‘Well, then, we can complain about them all weekend.’

An exasperated noise came down the phone. ‘Stop being so reasonable. He knows I love parties. He knows I would have wanted to organize it.’

‘Maybe he’s trying to keep you on the straight and narrow. He likes this “new normal”, where we have a glass of wine and don’t invite everyone we’ve ever met to trash the house.’ Chloe sensed that she had said the wrong thing. She could feel the tension prickling down the line. ‘When it’s your twenty-first I promise we’ll have the party to end all parties,’ she added, trying to row back, trying to bury her previous comment as deep as possible so that she could escape Zadie’s disapproval. ‘It’ll be several days long. So much booze that no one leaves without throwing up. So loud that you can’t hear anyone’s name even if they’re screaming it.’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise.’