“Fern, honey, we’re sorry, but we really do need to get the train.” Mum glanced at her wristwatch again. “They go from being four an hour to two an hour soon.”

“Of course.” I took a calming breath. “Thanks so much for coming.” I kissed each of them on the cheek. “It meant a lot.”

“We’re always very proud,” Dad said, nodding. “You did great.” I pulled him in for a tight hug. Then waved at my mum, who was already tugging his hand away, scouring for the fastest exit point through the sea of wine-drinkers.

“Right, another glass of wine each?” Ben said. “You don’t have to rush off, do you, Jessica?”

“Are you kidding? I will never stop exploiting my mum babysitting.”

“Red? Red?” he pointed at us, and we nodded eagerly. “Right, I’ll be back in twelve hours by the looks of the queue.”

I watched my boyfriend expertly navigate his way through the ocean of women, wondering if I would ever stop feeling such overpowering love for this man. Jessica watched me watch him.

“He really is great,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you. He’ll do.”

She laughed.

“He still hasn’t mentioned proposing or anything since our big talk,” I said. “Which makes me a little on edge, but then he’s so nice I remind myself to stop being stupid.”

“You definitely should. He’s lovely.” She noticed another small group of grinning women spying on us from afar. “Shall we go find a quiet table somewhere?”

“Yes, please! I’ve not asked you about your day yet at all. Did you only come up for this?”

We spotted a tucked away table, littered with discarded plastic pint glasses, and stacked them to one side, sitting down. I fired off a message to Ben to let him know where to find us, then faced my friend.

“I’ve been up all day actually,” she said, suddenly twisting her hands into each other.

“Oh yeah? How come? Did you need to meet Brendan or something?”

“God, no. I’ve literally not seen him since I’ve been in England. Isn’t that mental? He sends a fucking...car to collect Bridget, like she’s a royal or something.”

I scrunched my nose. “That’s not normal. At all. My God. Sorry.”

“It’s OK. I think he’s got some kind of magic circle cast around him. All women over the age of thirty who go near him turn to dust.” She started playing with the necklace I’d been admiring. “Actually, I was hoping to chat to you about why I was up here today.”

“Oh, yeah?”