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Jenny was up at 6 a.m. with Henry, trying to tidy the house one-handed whilst balancing him on her hip. Dan had tried his very best to get out of being present for the get-together. For the previous week, he had been muttering that he might need to work that weekend, but Jenny had been unrelenting: all the other dads were going to come, and she was pretty sure that she had even managed to persuade Gail to bring Joe.

Which made it even more irritating when Antonia turned up without Geoff.

‘Geoff had to work,’ was all Antonia said on the matter, in a tone which suggested that she had said a great deal more to him but to no avail. Jessica had been left at home with the nanny, and Antonia looked stunning in a tailored navy-blue dress with matching shoes. Maybe this was not her only social engagement of the day.

‘How come he gets out of it and I don’t?’ whispered Dan, on his way to take Antonia’s coat to their bedroom.

‘Because it’s your bloody house!’

‘Because you’re my bloody wife, more like,’ he grumbled as he walked up the stairs.

‘And don’t you hide up there!’ she hissed at his back.

Naomi and John arrived next; Jenny could have kissed John for coming. She scanned them both as they came in: they seemed happy enough. John helped Naomi with her coat and gave it to Dan (who mimed hanging himself to John – Jenny would need to talk to him about that later) and then placed his hand on the small of her back as they walked into the lounge. That looked positive.

‘Your lounge is lovely,’ said Naomi.

‘Thanks.’ Her Earth Mother proclamations aside, Jenny was really beginning to warm to Naomi.

She had just got a drink for everyone when the doorbell rang again. This was the moment she had really been looking forward to, and she could feel the others tense, too. Well, the women anyway: John and Dan had already taken refuge in the kitchen. ‘That must be Gail!’ she said. ‘Are we ready to finally meet Joe?’

‘Very ready,’ said Antonia, sarcastically. Jenny was too excited to pay much attention to her tone.

She couldn’t explain why she was so intrigued to finally meet Joe. As Dan had rightly pointed out, she didn’t know the husbands of the girls she worked with and she had known them a lot longer than she’d known Gail. It was the mystery, she supposed.

Dan got to the door before she did and opened it – to find only Gail and Jake. Gail noticed Jenny glance over her shoulder. ‘Just the two of us, I’m afraid.’

‘The mystery continues,’ Dan whispered at Jenny on his way back to the kitchen, as she followed Gail into the lounge.

‘Hello! Oh – no Joe?’ Naomi sounded disappointed to see Gail walk in alone, carrying a sleeping Jake in his car seat. You could say what you liked about that girl, Jenny thought, but she wasn’t afraid to ask the hot questions.

Antonia smiled smugly, as if she’d been expecting this. ‘Let me guess, tied up at work?’

Jenny jumped in quickly. ‘Is he unwell?’

Gail shook her head. ‘No. He’s fine. We just broke up.’

There was a moment of silence and then a clamour of voices: ‘I’m so sorry!’ ‘Are you okay?’ ‘What happened?’

Antonia stayed silent and drank her wine.

Gail didn’t look remotely heartbroken. ‘These things happen.’ She slipped off a black jacket and exchanged it for a glass of wine from Dan, who scuttled straight back to the safety of the kitchen.

‘And we haven’t even seen him,’ said Naomi, as Gail sat down next to her. It felt a bit insensitive for Naomi to say that out loud, even if it was pretty much exactly what Jenny was thinking.

‘And now we won’t,’ chipped in Antonia.

‘No.’ Gail stared at her. ‘You won’t.’

Well, there went any chance of Gail opening up and telling them the gory details. But now, Jenny had a more urgent agenda. ‘Perhaps I might have something to take your mind off Joe for a while.’ She smiled hopefully at all three of them. ‘What do you think about a girls’ weekend in Brighton on expenses?’

They all looked surprised. ‘Have you just thought of that?’ asked Gail.

‘Not exactly,’ said Jenny. ‘The thing is, I’ve been offered my old job back, writing “Girl About Town” again.’

‘Your single girl column? That’s great!’ Naomi patted Jenny’s leg. ‘You must be really pleased.’

‘Yes, it is great. But I don’t know whether to take it. They need me to start almost immediately and I’m still not sure about going back to work yet.’

‘Why are you unsure, darling?’ asked Antonia. ‘I thought you loved it?’

‘I do. I did. It’s just I’m not sure how I’ll fit it around Henry. I used to do pretty unsociable hours. Anyway, to help me make up my mind, I’ve suggested to my editor that I write a guest column about a girls’ weekend in Brighton. I’ll see how I get on with that and go from there. What do you think? Are you happy to be my temporary crew for the weekend?’ She crossed her fingers behind her back.

‘Yeah! That would be great fun,’ said Naomi. ‘I love the seaside. Daisy loves the beach, too.’

‘Ah.’ Jenny had assumed they would know it didn’t include the babies. ‘I meant just us. It’s only one night. Come on, Naomi. You deserve a night off.’

‘Count me in.’ Antonia raised her wine glass. ‘The nanny can do an overnight.’

Jenny looked at Naomi. ‘Please?’

Naomi looked uncertain. ‘I’ll have to talk to John about it, and I will need to express my milk while I’m away, but… it would be nice to have a night off.’

‘Great.’ Jenny was relieved. ‘I’ve spoken to Ruth already and she said she’ll come. She’ll be here soon.’ She glanced at her watch and then turned to Gail. ‘What about you?’

‘Why not?’ Gail scrolled through the calendar on her mobile. ‘The next few weekends I’m pretty free.’

‘Free and single, apparently,’ murmured Antonia.

Jenny glanced at Gail. She needed to keep the peace until she had them on the train to Brighton. Thankfully, John appeared to distract them.

‘Sorry to interrupt. Henry has woken up so I thought I’d come and get Daisy to play with him.’ He took her from Naomi’s lap, pecking Naomi on the cheek as he did so.

After he’d left the room, Antonia turned her attention to Naomi. ‘You and John seem okay—?’

‘Do we?’ Naomi shrugged. ‘It’s a bit more complicated than it looks.’ She glanced at Gail.

‘Really?’ asked Jenny. ‘In what way?’ What had Naomi told Gail that she wasn’t sharing with the rest of them?

For once, Naomi wasn’t forthcoming with information. ‘It’s too soon to say anything. When I know for sure, I’ll tell you all. I promise.’

Antonia was more interested in the weekend away. ‘What have you got planned for us in Brighton then, darling?’

‘Whatever you fancy doing, really. I’ll look into hotels and restaurants. We need to go as soon as possible. I need enough time to write the article and submit it to my boss.’ In fact, it was going to be articles. Plural. But no need to tell them about that yet.

There was a flurry of diaries and mobiles until finally they worked out a date that they could all commit to. Jenny’s mobile rang. It was Ruth.

‘I’m not going to make it.’

‘Oh, no, everyone was looking forward to seeing you. Are you okay?’ Jenny left the others discussing what clothes they would need to pack and walked into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind her.

‘Not really. I got my period this morning.’

‘Oh, Ruth. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting things to happen immediately. Or at all.’ Ruth laughed hollowly. ‘I just don’t feel up to an afternoon with babies.’

‘I understand. Of course you don’t. We’ll catch up soon, anyway. And I have a date for you for our weekend trip to Brighton. A month from today. The other three are up for it, too. It’ll just be babes, booze and no babies. It’ll do us all good.’

‘I’m not sure, Jen. I think I’ll put a downer on the weekend for you all. What if I’m feeling like this? I’m not much fun at the moment.’

‘You won’t put a downer on it. Look, let’s book it and if you feel like you don’t want to come when we get to it, you can pull out. If you do come, I think we should be in for some interesting conversations. There have been a few developments today already.’

Before she returned to the living room, Jenny popped into the kitchen and wrote the date for the Brighton weekend on the calendar. Dan and John were sitting at the kitchen table, each with a baby.

‘Get used to that, boys. One month today and you’ll be fending for yourselves.’

Which meant she had one month, one weekend and one humdinger of an ‘Undercover Mother’ article. This had to work.