‘You look lovely,’ she’d said, with genuine enthusiasm when she’d returned to collect me later. Off we went to meet Dad at an old-fashioned restaurant (as a family we only ate out about twice a year) where the desserts arrived on a trolley and I had to sit there with my caked-on panstick foundation, my frosted blue eye shadow and shimmery pink lips. One of my teachers was sitting at a nearby table, and when she spotted me and waved I wanted to die.

‘I was so embarrassed,’ I told Cathy that day. ‘I hated that my parents wanted to spin out the meal with coffee and petits fours. All I wanted was to rush home and wash off my face.’ Cathy had nodded and held my hand. ‘I’d give anything to have coffee with them now,’ I added. ‘I wouldn’t mind the shimmery blue eye shadow either. I’d have my whole face frosted if I could see Mum again.’

Cathy had seemed to understand. As a mum to three daughters, she knew all about a teenage girl’s horror of ‘standing out’. We’d even giggled over how she had made her eldest daughter a jumpsuit from curtain material and expected her to wear it, happily, to the school dance (‘I found out later that the poor girl had changed outfits in a phone box! What on earth had I been thinking?’). Now, of course, everything is different, and when Izzy talks about ‘our family’, she really means her father’s family – which feels utterly separate from me now. That’s just the way it’s going to be, I remind myself firmly as I pull into the work car park.

I’m trying to convince myself that it’s ridiculous – and selfish – to ‘mind’ Izzy going away. After all, it’ll be good for her to run wild with her cousins in the countryside. She loves them all, and they always have tremendous fun together. And while she’s away, I shall put my time to good use by arranging my first life coaching session with Jules. Before Andy left me, I’d wondered whether she might be able to help me to figure out where I was going in life; for instance, how I might move on from being a PA at Flaxico. At this point, leaving my job is the last thing on my mind (I’ve had quite enough dramatic changes in my life recently). However, Jules insists that coaching could still be ‘illuminating’, so I should give it a go.

I stop outside the main door of our office building and pull my phone from my bag, poised to text her. But instead, I spot three messages from my boss:

Seen Twitter etc? Major damage limitation work needed this week.

Then: Now on all news sites. Meeting for all asap, please don’t be late!