‘Oy, don’t push your luck,’ said Damian, and everybody laughed.

Once they were all sitting down with their drinks, Poppy noticed that Bella was drinking mineral water.

‘What?’ She looked from Bella to Andy, her eyes sparkling. ‘Belles, I don’t think I’ve known you order a non-alcoholic drink in a pub since … well, since we started going to pubs! Does this mean what I think it might mean?’

Bella laughed, ignoring the feeling of pure joy bubbling up inside her.

‘What? That I’ve joined AA and about time too?’ Everybody laughed at this, a bit more than Bella found necessary, as it happened.

‘Come on, you know what I mean …’ Poppy’s head was tilted to one side as she gazed up at her friend expectantly.

‘God, you do jump to conclusions, Pops. I’m on antibiotics. Pain in the arse just before Christmas, but I want to get rid of this bloody cold before going home. I need to be feeling better than I do now to cope with my family over “the holiday season”, as they insist on calling it in the States. Mum and Bernie, Dad and his latest (whoever she may be), Max and Dave, mad Auntie Charlotte and her motorbike …’

‘Yes, last year’s was unlike any Christmas I’ve ever known.’ Andy laughed. ‘You need crazy stamina to keep up.’

‘And Mum and Dad are bound to end up bickering about something,’ added Bella, downing her mineral water and wishing it was champagne. ‘You’d think they could manage to stay civil in each other’s company at least once a year …’

‘Oh, bugger, silly me with my wishful thinking.’ Poppy laughed. ‘Poor you, not being able to drink today though.’ She looked at Bella beadily and Bella looked away from her. ‘Oh, well. Let’s just toast all of us again, and the fact that we’re all together again.’ She raised her glass and looked around at the happy, smiling faces.

‘To love and friendship!’

‘Love and friendship!’

‘And enormous commercial success!’ added Damian.

Back in her flat later that day, Bella was lying on the chaise longue with her feet propped up on Andy’s lap, looking and feeling like the cat that got the cream.

‘Why did you change your mind about telling them?’ asked Andy, who was massaging her feet.

‘A couple of reasons. Partly the tempting fate thing – excited though I am, I’m starting to think that it would be better to wait till we’ve got the twelve-week all-clear.’

Andy laughed. ‘God knows how you’ll be able to pull it off around Poppy, bloody little bloodhound. You can’t be on antibiotics for another whole month.’

‘Oh, I’ll probably tell Pops anyway. The whole public announcement thing just suddenly seemed a bit premature, I suppose.’

‘Yes, I agree,’ said Andy, and they were both silent for a moment, offering up an internal prayer that their baby was going to be fine. ‘OK, so what was your other reason?’

‘Didn’t want to take the limelight away from Damian. This screenplay is a huge deal for him …’