To be honest, she didn’t really know how serious any of the others were whenever they made that joke as they sat through a shopping centre choir performance or an extra-long awards assembly when your child wasn’t getting any awards. Usually they all made hilarious quips about needing a hip flask to get through it. And while she hadn’t gone so far as to bring along a hip flask, what she had done was pour herself a few glasses in quick succession from her ‘lemonade bottle’ before they headed out.

She had wondered when she mixed her second bottle this morning if she’d gone through that first one a bit too quickly. Especially as the plan had been not to drink until tonight. But it had been such a tough week. And she had noticed that this time the ratio was more like two-thirds gin to one-third lemonade rather than the other way around, but that was only because it had been going down a little too easily previously. Making it stronger would probably mean she’d pour fewer drinks.

Anyway, a few drinks would make tonight’s musical performance much more bearable. And she was allowed to feel that way because Tara was only going to be on stage for all of two minutes, playing the triangle in the very back row of the band. For the remaining two hours and fifty-eight minutes (God willing it didn’t go over three hours), they’d be watching other people’s children from other schools sing, dance or play musical instruments and Mimi was bloody well allowed to be half-baked for that.

Plus, they had a babysitter for the twins, Callie was at a friend’s house, and after the musical tonight, Tara was heading to a sleepover with one of her friends from the concert. So, Mimi had minimal parenting to do.

She flopped down into a plastic chair and Pete landed heavily beside her, catching the edge of her skirt under his thigh. ‘Never enough room,’ Mimi whispered as she tugged it out from under him.

‘That’s because these chairs are made for child-sized butts,’ said Pete, not bothering to whisper.

‘Shh,’ she hissed with a giggle. ‘You can’t say butts in a school hall.’

He elbowed her in response. ‘You’re the one who’s whisper-shouting.’

‘Am not.’

‘Are too. You sound drunk. Actually . . . you smell drunk, woman. Take a mint, for God’s sake.’

Uh oh, did he know about her lemonade bottle? It had felt like he was watching a little closely as she’d poured her drinks before they left home.

‘Did you sneak in a cheeky glass of wine?’

Ah. ‘Umm, yeah, I did . . . sorry.’

‘No need to be sorry . . . well, except for the part where you didn’t offer me one.’

‘I know, I’m such a selfish bitch.’

‘The worst.’

‘I can’t believe your mum didn’t want to sit with us.’