'I feel great. Happy.' Thanks to you, she thought.

'Good. Just checking. Didn't have you down as the type to go mad over a birthday, but you never know ... So, the text sounded like you have time to meet, today?' He sounded tentative.

Douglas had booked a table for dinner. He'd told her a couple of days ago. He'd raised her birthday before Christmas, but she'd said then, genuinely, that she didn't want any fuss. It was no big deal, she said. He'd nodded, and said nothing more about it, until he'd mentioned the restaurant. Just the two of them, he said, at the Oxo Brasserie at Gabriel's Wharf.

'I could meet you for a drink.'

'This evening?'

'Around six?'

'Perfect.'

'I ... I have to be somewhere, later ...'

'I'm sure. That's fine. Of course. I didn't think you'd be able to have a drink at all.'

'I really want to see you.'

'I want to see you, too.'

Amelia rang a little later.

'Happy birthday, Suze. Welcome to your fifth decade.'

'Great. Thanks.'

'So, strip off yet, in front of the mirror? Watching everything start falling ... ?'

'No!'

'That's what I'll be doing.' Amelia would be forty in August. 'But not for ... oh, six whole months.'

'Please. Spare me the gloating.'

'So ... is Douglas around?'

'He's in the shower, I think.' Susannah heard the water running.

'Okay, so you know tonight's a surprise party, right?'

'God, no,' Susannah groaned. 'Please tell me you're kidding.'

'I kid you not. It's quite sweet actually. Even if it denotes a total lack of understanding of you ... you're not a surprise party kind of a girl. Even Sam would know not to surprise you.'

'Douglas did this?'

'Yup. He's arranged everything.'

'Christ.'

'Okay, so you're going to need to work on your surprise face, clearly. I'm only on the phone and I can see the expression ...'

'Thanks for the heads-up, Meels.'

'Like I'd let you show up at a surprise party without warning you. I figured this way you'd have time to get your hair done, and wear something sparkly ...'

'Don't know about that. But thanks anyway. You'll be there?'

'Me and the wig. Jonathan's coming with me.'

Susannah let that pass. She didn't really know what the state of play was, and she didn't ask. 'Who else will be there? Do you know?'

'Well, I didn't write the guest list, obviously, but I think there are going to be about thirty people. Something like that. Al and Kathryn, Alex and Chloe, your mum and dad ...'

'Mum and Dad!'

'Yes amazing, huh? I was shocked, too. Your mum and dad ... and, you know, the usual suspects. Some from work ... you know ...'

'Bloody hell.'

'Okay. Still not quite there with the attitude.'

'I just don't want it, Meels.'

'I know. I'd have tried to tell him that, if he'd asked me before he arranged it all, but he didn't. He only called when it was all sorted.'

She'd taken the day off, and resisted the attempts of several people, including Douglas and Amelia, to meet for lunch. She'd have met Rob, but she knew he had a full day of meetings. She took her breakfast back to bed and watched This Morning, opened her cards and read magazines. With Amelia's words ringing in her ears, she stripped off in front of the bathroom mirror to see whether gravity had sped up overnight, decided that it wasn't any worse today than it had been yesterday, and lolled in a deep fragrant bubble bath for an hour. Then she spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready to go out. She told herself she wanted to look her best for the surprise party that was no longer a surprise, but it was her drink beforehand with Rob that she was thinking about. She had her hair blown into smooth waves at the salon round the corner, and her finger and toenails painted at the new nail place that had opened up a few doors down. She put on a new black shift dress she'd bought in the sales, with crystals sewn into the neckline, and high heels with a diamante toe, and ordered a minicab to take her to the bar where Rob had asked her to meet him, rather than walk to the underground station. She figured she deserved it today.

He stood up as she walked towards him, looking gratifyingly impressed. He was dressed up, too, and she was touched. When she reached him, he took both her hands in his own. 'You look unbelievably beautiful, Susie.'

Wow. 'You don't look so bad yourself.' She knew they were grinning at each other, but she didn't care.

There was a bottle of champagne on the small table, and two tall flutes.

He poured two glasses, and, handing one to her, raised his own in a toast. 'Happy Birthday, Susie.' He pulled a small brown cardboard box out of his jacket pocket. 'I got you something.'

'Thank you. This is so nice. All of it. I feel spoilt.' Susannah took the box, and kissed him on the cheek. 'You didn't need to. Really.'

'I know. I wanted to. Spoil you a bit.'

'What is it?'

He laughed. 'It's not a car. Open it. Find out.'

Susannah took the lid off the box. On a bed of crumpled white tissue paper lay a locket. She recognized it straight away. It was the little rose gold locket he'd given her for her eighteenth birthday. She'd left it in his room at Cranwell after the strange, uncomfortable evening at his graduation ball and she'd never asked to have it back.

He'd kept it all these years.

Her eyes were full of tears when she looked up at him. 'You kept it? I can't believe you did that.'

He smiled. 'Cost me a lot of money, you know.'

She laughed, but what she wanted to do was cry. Looking back down at the small piece of jewellery, she ran her fingernail down the edge and eased the locket open. The photograph was the same. Their faces stared up at her, frozen in time, in a smile of joy. She remembered exactly how that had felt.

'I can't believe you kept it.'

She stayed too long, in the bar with Rob. Time passed too fast. In the end, it was Rob who reminded her she was supposed to be somewhere else. She looked at her watch. It was 7.25 p.m. She was supposed to be at the restaurant in five minutes, and it would take at least fifteen, she reckoned. She had to get across the river. Susannah didn't want to go.

'D'you want to come with me?' She wasn't entirely serious. 'It's a surprise party.'

'Aren't you supposed to be surprised by a surprise party?' Rob was smiling.

'Amelia told me. She knew I'd hate walking in without warning.'

'Good for Amelia. So ... if I came with you, I'd be the surprise, would I ... ?'

'Yeah. You certainly would!'

'I think I'll let you go alone, if that's okay with you.'

Susannah shrugged exaggeratedly. 'Party pooper.'

'Don't want to share you, that's all.' His face was suddenly serious, and she knew exactly what he meant.

He walked her to the front of the bar and helped her into her coat. Outside on the street it was freezing. He put his hand out to hail her a taxi. Their breath came in puffs of white. Pulling the collar close around her ears, he held on to the lapels, and pulled her towards him to kiss her once on the lips, but when he moved away, he didn't get more than a few inches from her face. Their eyes were wide open. The next kiss was inevitable, although it took a few long seconds for him to move back in. His lips touched her mouth again, but this time he couldn't break the contact. He couldn't keep the kiss a kiss between friends there was much, much more in it. And she didn't want him to, not any more.

If the black cab hadn't pulled up at that moment, she would never have left.

Fifteen minutes later, as she emerged from the lift on to the top floor of the building, it wasn't hard to act surprised when she walked into the private room. She was in a kind of shock from Rob's kiss, all the way to the Oxo Tower. She felt wired, and alive, and startled, and it had nothing to do with her friends and family applauding and whooping at her.

Amelia had one of her new wigs on. It was an Anna Wintour-esque sharp brunette bob, and it made her look fierce. Or maybe that was just the expression on her face. 'Where've you been? I've tried calling you.'

'Sorry.' Susannah waved her narrow clutch bag. 'No room for a phone.'

'So, where were you?'

'I'm not that late, am I?'

'I suppose not,' Amelia grudgingly agreed, but she still eyed her friend suspiciously.

The trouble with having a friend like Amelia, someone who'd known you so well for so long, was that lying to them, even by omission, became very difficult after a certain point. Amelia knew something was up, but she didn't know what, and it was driving her crazy. Not knowing, but also not being trusted. It worked both ways, though Susannah knew exactly how to distract her.

'Loving the wig. Very scary editor of Vogue.'

'Do you think?' Amelia preened a little.

'I do.'

'You look gorgeous. New dress ... ?'

'New dress.' Susannah twirled a little. As she swung round, she saw Jonathan watching them from across the room where he was half engaged in a conversation with Susannah's dad. He was smiling, and when he caught her eye, he winked.

'How's J?'

'He's home. Not now, obviously. Now he's over there, talking to your father. But he's come home.'

Susannah threw her arms around Amelia, who put one hand on her head. 'Watch the wig, will you?'

'Oh, thank God. I'm so glad. So, so glad, Meels.' She was crying sudden, happy-sad tears.

Amelia smiled, mystified. 'Me, too. What's with the waterworks?'

'Ignore me. I'm a bit emotional this evening, that's all. When did this happen? Tell me, tell me ...'

'This week. I sat the kids down and told them I was thinking about asking him to come home, permanently. Asked them for their vote.'

'Let me guess how that went?'

'Unanimous, actually.'

'Quelle surprise.'

'Elizabeth did surprise me, actually. She asked me if I was sure it was because of her dad, not because of the cancer.'

'Smart girl that one.'

'Like her Auntie Susannah.'

'And are you? You weren't sure, at New Year.'

Amelia was looking across the room at him, and Susannah knew the answer from the expression on her face.

'Okay. Enough, you two ...' Jonathan was walking over to them, with the same inane grin Amelia was wearing and his hand cupping one ear. 'My ears are more than burning.' He put a casual arm around both their shoulders. 'What's she saying about me, Suze?'

'She's just telling me that everything is back as it should be.'

'Except my hair.' Amelia straightened the wig unnecessarily.

Jonathan reached out and stroked her cheek, and she caught his hand and brought it to her mouth, kissing it, her eyes never leaving his.

'And that'll be next. I'm really happy for you two. This is a good thing. Thank God.'

Susannah's mum and dad were there, and Alastair, with a glamorous and smiling Kathryn who told her excitedly that they were celebrating Valentine's Day late, having left the kids with her mum and booked a night in the Covent Garden Hotel, where they'd stayed the night they got married, before they flew off on their honeymoon. Alexander and Chloe were there, too, her normally washboard tummy beginning to swell slightly beneath a definitely bigger cleavage. The rest of the list, she guessed, had been cobbled together by Doug with Megan's help a somewhat bizarre smattering of colleagues and friends as old as their relationship, most of her university friends having failed to make the transition from her marriage to Sean to this new partnership. It was hard to concentrate on everyone else and their jovial party small talk her mind was so much preoccupied with Rob, and what had just happened between them. She couldn't believe everyone couldn't tell, just by looking at her. She felt as if her cheeks were pink. She was officially hot and bothered. She wondered briefly where the kids were why Doug hadn't brought them. She'd barely spoken to him he'd greeted her with a kiss when she first came in but the two of them had been absorbed by the guests, at either end of the long space, and she hadn't had a chance to ask him. She supposed Rosie and Fin wouldn't have been interested, but Daisy might have loved this a smart adult London party. If she'd known, if she'd had a hand in organizing everything, she would have included her. And let her bring Seth. She'd worked out, lately, that the more you treated Daisy like a grown-up, the more like a grown-up Daisy behaved. Not rocket science, Susannah knew, but a lesson Doug had apparently yet to learn.

Doug now tapped a fork against his glass to call the room to order. God, Susannah thought, he's going to make a speech. It seemed profoundly un-Douglas-like. She tried to insinuate herself into the crowd, as though that would help, but miraculously people evaporated so she was alone, centre stage.

'Sorry to interrupt, everyone. Come here, will you, Susannah?'