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.’
    Nell’s mouth turned up in a smile shape but a light seemed to have gone out of her eyes. ‘I’m cool,’ she said.
    ‘And don’t even think about asking me if I want to do a Ten Reasons Why He Was a Wanker Anyway list, all right?’ She grabbed a menu and opened it up in front of her face. ‘Right, let’s choose some food.’
    Josie and Lisa exchanged glances as they took menus themselves and flipped them open. OK, so Nell’s love life – or recently extinct one – was clearly out of bounds. And judging by the way Lisa had shut down so completely when quizzed about relationships, so was hers. So that just leaves me, thought Josie, rolling her eyes. And who wants to hear about my marriage? It would seem like boasting if she started talking about Pete now. Yes, we’re coming up to our seven-year anniversary – I know! I can hardly believe it either. Yes, we’re still madly in love. Well, you know – comfortable together, rather than tearing each other’s clothes off all the time, but that’s what happens, I guess, when you’re settled down. The honeymoon doesn’t last for ever! Anyway, we’re trying for a little girl now, a sister for the boys. Oh, it’ll be lovely. Rose, we’re going to call her. We’ve got it all worked out!
    Josie grimaced behind the safe shield of her menu. No. Definitely not the time to start reeling all that off. Not unless she wanted to be slapped around the head with a Peroni bottle, anyway.
    ‘How about another beer while we decide?’ she suggested, to break the awkward silence. Somehow or other she’d finished hers already.
    ‘Definitely,’ Nell and Lisa chorused. Then they both smiled, a little self-consciously, and Josie felt relieved. So certain subjects had been flagged up as off-limits for now . . . but it was still early. Hopefully, by the end of the day, Nell and Lisa would have warmed up enough to ease back into best-mate-intimacy mode, and everything would be back to how it used to be.
    The waiter brought over three more bottles and set them on the table.
    ‘Cheers,’ Josie said, lifting hers. ‘To friendship.’ Nell clinked her bottle against Josie’s. ‘To friendship.’
    ‘To friendship,’ Lisa chimed in, raising her own bottle. ‘And food. What shall we eat?’
    Josie stared into the rust-flecked mirror and groaned at the sight of her flushed cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Christ. She felt half-pissed already and it was still only one-thirty. It wouldn’t have been so bad if either Nell or Lisa were even a tiny bit tipsy, but they seemed completely unaffected by the beer. Unlike Lightweight Josie in the wobbly corner. At this rate she was going to be passing out before three o’clock. Surely they wouldn’t want to continue boozing the whole afternoon and then all evening? She’d never be able to keep up.
    Josie splashed cold water on her face, trying to cool her hot cheeks. What she really fancied right now was a nap. A lie-down on one of those comfortable-looking sofas at the front of the restaurant, with her head propped on one of the fluffy cushions. Mmmm. Just for half an hour or so . . .
    She shook her head at her reflection. No way. She already felt like the frumpy one of the trinity. She certainly wasn’t going to compound that by proposing an afternoon snooze like an old granny. Maybe she could suggest they had a cup of coffee instead. She certainly needed something to jerk her out of this beery blurriness.
    In a sudden clutch of paranoia, she wondered if the other two were discussing her right now. Were they laughing about how red-faced and pissed she was looking? Had they noticed that her make-up seemed to have melted away to nothing already, that she’d spilled salsa down her top from a particularly drippy nacho? Oh God – what if they were regretting coming to meet her, boring old Josie? Was she cramping their style?
    The bathroom door creaked, and in lurched Nell. ‘I am enjoying this sooo much,’ she declared. She came over and