Was this deliberate? Her back teeth locked together, tensing her neck.

‘She’s just – I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound like a prick, but she’s a nice girl. No mess, no fuss. No skeletons in the closet. Just straightforward, down to earth.’

Chloe tried to catch Rav’s eye from across the room, to send him a Mayday signal, to drag the conversation back to all four of them, to break open this weirdly intimate trap Max had pulled her into.

‘I guess what I’m saying’ – Max smiled down at her, his dark curls shining – ‘is that she’s nothing like Zadie.’

Chloe opened her mouth to reply, but Max went on. ‘Look, I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, and after what happened we’re not supposed to say it, but she was awful. Remember how she used to get? My God, she was such a burden on you. She practically made you fail your first year.’

‘What?’ Rav asked, drawn away from his conversation with Verity.

‘Nothing,’ Chloe said hurriedly.

‘We were exchanging memories. Like the time that Chloe nearly got kicked out of uni in her first year.’

‘You what?’

She hadn’t ever told Rav about that. He would have blamed Zadie. Claimed she was a ‘bad influence’, that Chloe’s lack of dedication to her university work was somehow Zadie’s responsibility. Even now, she couldn’t bear the idea of him blaming Zadie. She wanted to remember Zadie as her beloved best friend, not as the tornado she could sometimes be.

‘He’s exaggerating. I got a formal warning for missing some work. Like a lot of people did in their first year. It wasn’t a big deal.’

Rav raised his eyebrows. ‘More than fifteen years together, and I’m still learning new things about you. I guess that’s something to be pleased about.’

‘I’m not sure learning new things about our other halves is always ideal,’ laughed Max. ‘Verity and I have a nice amnesty about anything I did before I was twenty-one.’

I bet you do, thought Chloe. She took another long drink from her glass. She looked around the table. Everyone was staring at her. Had she said that out loud?

‘Has everyone finished their starter?’ asked Verity as a hush settled across the table. There was a general murmur of agreement and she took the plates away to the kitchen. Chloe got up to help, starting to open cupboards, looking for a dishwasher.

‘Oh, you don’t need to do that,’ said Verity. ‘I’ve got someone coming in tomorrow. She’s wonderful, but she gets upset with me if I try and clear up. She has her own ways of doing things.’