“Did you say something, darling?” Ms Tricia looked up from the cat she’d been cooing at, widening her eyes behind big, eighties glasses. They had pearl-studded arms that almost perfectly matched her short, white curls.

“Jason,” Will repeated, unzipping his jacket and hanging it up on the brass coat stand, trying not to disturb the tinsel taped to each hook. “You said he was coming today?” Although, when Will had mentioned it during their last phone call, Jase had seemed a bit bewildered.

But Jase was a workaholic who spent ninety percent of his time high on espresso fumes; he always seemed a bit bewildered. It was his thing.

“Oh, I’m sure one of the children will be about soon. But no one’s arrived yet. You are the first. I don’t believe you’ve met Gravy, have you, William?”

Will blinked at the cat in Ms Tricia’s arms, his mind shifting with the subject. “I can’t say I recognise her. Very nice to meet you, Gravy. I’m charmed.” He patted the creature’s little ginger paw and was delighted when it hissed and tried to scratch him. Showed a lot of spirit and strong personal boundaries. He made an entry in his mental catcyclopaedia: Gravy, ginger, new, has very firm character. Ms Tricia’s cats multiplied at the speed of light so he’d set up a system to keep them all straight in his head.

That dealt with, he followed Ms Tricia into the kitchen. There was a pot of what smelled like curry goat on the Aga, which was also bedecked with a row of tinsel—which might be a fire hazard. He should probably Google that. “Shall I call Jase, see if he’s been held up?”

“Jason, Jason, Jason. You boys, you’re obsessed with each other.” Ms Tricia put Gravy down on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island. Will went to sit down as well, only to find the nearest stool occupied by a lazy-looking tabby by the name of Cassava, if he wasn’t mistaken. He politely chose another chair.

“I’m not obsessed with Jase,” he said honestly, “I just need to ask him something.” Will had spent months working up to this Christmas. The Christmas When Everything Would Change. He had a plan, a foundational plan, a plan whose success (or failure) would dictate how the next year, or maybe the rest of his life, went for him. This plan was everything. So he really needed to run it by Jase before he started. Because Will had two best friends, and one of those best friends was the subject of The Plan. The other best friend was Jase, which made him the only one who could say, “Actually your plan is a pile of wank. Please fix this, this, and this before rushing off to make a fool of yourself.”