Seeing Judith again hadn’t been as bad as she’d expected. And certainly she’d spent years imagining it. That’s what people said, wasn’t it? That the anticipation of a dreaded event was often worse than the event itself.

Judith had aged, of course. ‘Filled out’ as Lana’s grandmother would have called it, but then Judith was always prone to put on – God knows she used to moan about it often enough. Always on some bloody diet or other. And she was much more pompous than Lana remembered. Admittedly she always could be a bit up herself, but now, with her big important government job, she thought she was the bee’s bloody knees. It was funny to think they were once so close, and yet, Lana realized, if she’d met her for the first time that day, she’d never have befriended her in a million years. Judith just wasn’t Lana’s cup of tea.

On the day of the christening, after Judith had left the Kelly house, Lana had proceeded to write her name in a couple of bottles of Cava. She needed it in order to contend with Catrin’s unrelenting persuasion tactics.

‘So now you and Jude are friends again …’ she’d said.

‘We’re not friends again, Cat,’ Lana replied, but Catrin just ignored her.

‘… maybe we can arrange a girls’ get-together? A weekend away, maybe? Just us three.’

In the end, the only way to put a stop to it had been to go home.

Since then Catrin had been emailing. Copying in both Lana and Judith and making suggestions for a series of elaborate ‘catch-ups’. Lana never replied. And nor, quite tellingly, did Judith. Cat was on to a bit of a loser really, and Lana hoped to God she’d just give up on her mission. She didn’t want to be harsh – she knew that Catrin meant well. But some friendships had a sell-by date. And me and Judith Harris? We’re like a loaf of old bread that’s definitely gone stale.

Sometimes Lana would go so far as thinking, Well, I love Catrin. And Catrin loves Judith. So Judith must have something going for her. And then she’d wonder if they could …? Could they just eradicate all those wasted years of resentment and start again? Was there still a bond between them other than the fact that they had a best friend in common?

It was on sleepless nights like this that Judith Harris really came back to haunt her. She’d forget the deceit, the guilt, the rejection, and remember the better times instead: like when they’d laughed so much a little bit of wee came out; or when they’d tried dying Cat’s hair blonde and it went green; the shared angst of teenage years, getting caught for shoplifting three packets of Opal Fruits, putting on a funeral for Judith’s goldfish, revising for exams, passing her driving test and taking them all on a road trip to Brecon; how they’d all cried on their last day of school; and, of course, the trip to Greece. It was all couched in a warm haze of sisterly love that still felt as fresh as if it had happened only yesterday.