‘Zadie. I know she doesn’t mean to do it, but she draws focus. Makes things about her.’

Max was watching her from the other end of the table, clearly trying to seem as if he was fine with her behaviour, with hearing her voice cutting over every discussion, with how loud her laugh was. But he wasn’t. It was his birthday. It was fair that he didn’t want Zadie to be the centre of attention, wasn’t it? Every time there was a lull in the conversation Zadie’s voice would fill it. Louder than anyone else’s. Talking faster than anyone else. How could anyone talk that fast? Chloe watched as Max caught Zadie’s eye and discreetly put one finger to his lip, signalling her to be a little quieter. Zadie’s eyes flashed dark, a storm brewing. She mouthed ‘fuck off’ at him, still smiling, but obviously unamused. Chloe scanned the table to see whether anyone else had noticed. It seemed they had not.

Max had seated himself between two of the prettiest plus ones, a girl named Cora on one side, and a girl named Lisbette on the other. He was laughing at something one of them had said, a hand on Cora’s arm, a hand on Lisbette’s leg. Her gaze flicked between Max and Zadie. Both were laughing, both seemingly happy. She caught sight of herself and Rav, reflected in one of the silver pitchers of water, untouched on the table. Perhaps neither of them was the problem.

Dinner went on for hours, course after course of barely eaten food, all of which was delicious but got in the way of drinking, talking and laughing. Eventually, once an enormous cake had been brought out so Max could blow out the candles, a surprise organized by his parents, he stood up.

‘Not another speech, I promise,’ he said, laughing. He was especially handsome in the candlelight, ‘but a game.’

There were cheers of approval. ‘It’s Hide and Seek, of sorts. Only a little more grown-up. The lights go off – all the lights – and the girls hide. The boys look for them. And whatever happens when you’re found is entirely up to you.’

For a moment there was silence. Then a sort of rush of approval. The girlfriend contingent looked at each other, trying to assess whether they had the message right. Was this really going to turn into boyfriend-swapping? Max added, ‘You can of course hunt down your partner. But you’re not obliged to. Right. Ladies, you have ten minutes to hide. Let the game begin!’