‘You were sprawled across the bed, fully clothed and sparko by the time I got back.’

‘No! Was I?’ I ask, realizing he must’ve got home really late in that case.

‘Absolutely. Knew it must’ve been a good one so thought you’d appreciate some extra sleep.’

‘Thank you!’ I say. ‘It really was great.’

A gasp escapes as I remember the hours we spent trawling the internet, with Zaza and Mike having to stop me from using my credit card to book the whole trip before we’d had a chance to plan properly. Instead, I sent a polite email to the company requesting a hold on the dates before going on Amazon and ordering a she-wee. I’ve no idea why that was the item I decided to impulse buy, and I doubt I’d have the guts to use it, but there we go, first trek item bought. This is a thing. We’re going.

‘What?’

‘I’m … erm … and there’s no need to panic because we can call in the grandparents for help and all that – I’ll call them today to make sure they’re fine with it, but I think I’m going on a trek to Peru with Za and Mike,’ I cover my mouth once the words are out, waiting for his reaction.

‘Peru! Peru! Peru!’ shouts Chloe. ‘Like Paddington!’

‘Yeeeeah,’ I nod slowly, surprised I didn’t make that connection when she’s currently obsessed with the little brown bear. ‘I’m so sorry, I should’ve talked to you about it and made sure it was OK,’ I say to Nick.

‘You haven’t booked it, have you?’ he asks in surprise.

‘Before talking to you? Of course not … I came very close to it, though,’ I admit, aware of his eyebrows raising as I say it. ‘I know you’re busy and this isn’t a great time for me to be swanning off like this. Not when you’ve just won a pitch and have a million things on your plate, but is there ever really a good time for me to do something like this? I don’t think so. I think something else will always pop up and I just need to bite the bullet and do it. Plus there was a note and we knew we had to. It’s one of her Rules –’ I stop the verbal diarrhoea that’s coming from my mouth as a flashback to my teenage self, begging my parents to let me go to a club, springs to mind. ‘I just really want to go,’ I say simply.