‘Oh, thanks.’ A piece on sexting and checking your teenager’s phone. I said I’d never look at Cassie’s, because it would destroy the trust between us. There’d been a lot of comments online, some calling me deluded and a bad mother. I told myself any buzz was good.

‘How did Cass feel about it, being in the magazine?’

I looked over to where Cassie and Jake swayed in the swing seat, side by side. Her long bare legs were hooked over the side. Jake had come dressed all in black. Black T-shirt, black jeans, black trainers. Black curtains of hair over his face. It was hard to picture the sweet little boy he’d been, so anxious to please, always grabbing me round my legs when I looked after him while Karen was at work. But that was years ago, when we lived within streets of each other in London. Now, we were so far apart. When he’d arrived, I’d gone to hug him and he’d dodged me, and I scolded myself for how bad it felt. Jake was seventeen, with no dad, and clearly in the throes of teenage angst. He’d come out of it. ‘Oh, she didn’t mind. She knows it’s an important issue.’ The truth was, I’d been afraid to ask what she thought. These days, she was opaque to me – unreadable.

‘We taped you off Channel 4 too. Well, with the box, you know. You really stood up to that little toerag.’

‘Someone has to. It’s disgusting, the way he talks. Rape jokes, in 2018!’

‘Here she goes,’ said Mike. ‘Isn’t there something to be said for free speech, especially in comedy? We don’t live in Soviet Russia.’

‘She’s done really well,’ said Karen gently. ‘Don’t be a dick about it, Mikey. Leave that devil’s advocate shtick to Callum.’

‘I know, I know. We’re very proud of her.’ He squeezed my leg under the table. ‘She’s turned that charity around as well. They were going to close the refuge before Ali joined the board.’

‘Oh bugger, that reminds me. I have to go – sorry, Kar. I did say I had this meeting?’ I was sure I had, so I didn’t know why she’d arrived so early.

She flapped her hands at me. ‘Go, go. We’ll be fine here.’