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occasions she’d either had cast-iron-can’t-possibly-miss prior engagements or just turned up so late that Alison had already left. Up to now, things had worked out just fine, but she had a feeling her parents’ ruby wedding anniversary was going to present problems. She should be there. She’d feel guilty if she wasn’t there. It was her daughterly duty to be there. Unfortunately, it was also Alison’s daughterly duty to be there – and no way was SJ going within a five mile radius of her sister, especially not with Tom by her side.
    “I wish you’d forget this silly feud,” her mother went on quietly. “You know Alison feels terrible about what happened.” SJ doubted that very much. The only thing Alison ever felt terrible about was if she accidentally broke a nail, or her hairdresser put the wrong shade of highlights in her hair, or she put on an ounce or two. “She’s really sorry she hurt you. She’ll regret it for the rest of her days…”
    SJ mouthed her mother’s next words at the phone. “And it’s all such a long time ago.”
    “And it’s all such a long time ago. We would so like you both to be there. At the same time, I mean. It would really make our day.”
    “That’s emotional blackmail, Mum.”
    “It’s not emotional blackmail. It’s a mother wanting to be with her family on her special day. You’ll understand when you have your own children.”
    “Mmm,” SJ said, hoping they weren’t going into the when-are-you-going-to-give-me-a-grandchild? routine. That was another sore point between her and Tom. She’d wanted to try before she was too much older and he was worried they couldn’t afford it.
    “Why don’t we meet up for a drink, love? It’s been ages since we’ve seen that lovely husband of yours.”
    “Good idea,” SJ replied absently, reminded of her gin and tonic mission. “Why don’t you come over for dinner and I’ll get Tom to cook for us? It’s a bit soon to organise it for this Saturday.” She’d need a lot more than four days to think up a good enough excuse to miss the ruby wedding party. “How about the one after that? We can have a good chinwag then.”
    “That sounds lovely - if you’re sure you don’t mind. All right, we’ll see you then. We’ll bring a nice bottle of wine.”
    SJ put down the phone with a sigh of relief. Saturday week was certainly far enough away not to have to worry about it. Right – back to the business in hand. It was still too early to start on the wine, but a gin and tonic would fill the gap nicely.
    Having extricated a double from the optic she could see there wasn’t enough for another whole measure so she added what was left and reached for the tonic. There wasn’t any room for the lemon – oh well. She was mid-pour when the front door banged and she heard the double thump of Tom’s laptop and briefcase on the solid wood floor of the hall.
    “Hi, darling,” she called, torn between relief and, for some reason, guilt. “Had a good day?”
    By the sound of his answering grunt he hadn’t, and he didn’t come into the lounge but went straight upstairs.
    He’d probably cheer up after a beer. SJ hooked one out of a stack behind the bar. She was halfway through the gin and tonic, enjoying the glorious taste of juniper berries – people said gin didn’t taste, but it did – when she remembered she was supposed to fill in her form about how she felt before she had her first drink. Damn.
    She knew how she felt now – pretty relaxed. How had she felt before? Thirsty probably; what else were you going to be just prior to pouring yourself a drink? She had a sneaking suspicion Kit might not find that as amusing as she did so she decided to think about it tomorrow and put something sensible like ‘needed to relax’.
    Having got this sorted she stood at the bottom of the stairs and called up: “Dinner will be ready in ten minutes, Tom. Are you having a shower first?”
    “Uh huh. Won’t be a tick.”
    She slipped