Erin tiptoed down the hall. The twins were napping, and she hoped to keep it that way. She was carrying a cake, being careful not to drop it. Quietly, quietly, she opened the front door.

She crept across the landing and knocked on James’s door. She waited, then knocked again. She heard footsteps, and saw a shadow under the door, but it remained closed. ‘I wanted to apologise for the noise,’ Erin said, her mouth close to the letterbox. ‘I’ve baked you a cake.’

The shadow shifted, but still James didn’t open the door. Erin felt suddenly ridiculous. What had possessed her to bake this man a cake? At least, she thought with a sigh, at least it kept me from drinking. Since Archie had gotten into the cutlery drawer, she’d managed not to drink until the twins were in bed. It hadn’t been easy.

She considered leaving the cake on James’s doorstep, but they had problems with mice in the building as it was. She crept back into her own flat. As she closed the door behind her, she heard a cry from the twins’ bedroom.

*

The twins were running about the living room, high on sugar, when Erin got the text from Jen. Don’t suppose you’d want to come to mine for a coffee? I could use some adult company!!

Jen and Erin had been friends since their early twenties. They’d met through the boyfriends that became their husbands. They used to see each other all the time, but now Erin dreaded Jen’s chirpy little texts. She declined her invites more often than not, but politeness demanded she accept every once in a while. And Erin could use some adult company too. Sounds good, she texted back. 

*

The promise of more cake, if they were good, meant Erin got the twins out of the door without a fuss. They toddled down the stairs, chatting nonsense. They were on the first-floor landing when Holly came out of her flat. Erin murmured a greeting, but she kept the twins moving. 

‘Hello, Archie,’ Holly said. ‘Hello, Annie.’

The twins stared at her. ‘I don’t think they’re in the mood for chatting,’ Erin said. And neither am I.

‘That’s OK,’ Holly said. She slipped past them on the stairs. ‘Let me get the door for you.’ She waited while Erin help the twins down the last couple of stairs. ‘I’ve been wanting to ask you something,’ she said.

‘Ask away,’ Erin replied, wary.

‘Did you know you were pregnant? Before you took a test?’

Yes, Erin had known. She’d felt nauseous one afternoon, out of the blue, and she knew. She’d spent two weeks hoping she was wrong, hoping her period would appear. Andy noticed when it didn’t—he’d taken an interest in her menstrual cycle when they started ‘trying’. And that was that: she’d taken a test, Andy had been overjoyed, and Erin hadn’t felt like she had a choice.

‘I can’t remember,’ she said to Holly. She let the twins pull her out onto the street.

*

Jen’s kitchen was spacious enough to accommodate three rampaging toddlers: Archie, Annie, and Jen’s little boy, who was six months older than the twins. Jen and Erin watched them play as they drank coffee at the kitchen table. Jen jiggled her three-month-old baby on her lap.

‘Thanks for coming,’ she said.

‘My pleasure,’ Erin replied. ‘It’s nice to get out of the flat.’

‘It must be,’ Jen said. ‘I don’t know how you manage in a flat. I’m so glad we bought the house before we had kids.’

Jen was very good at making Erin feel small, making her choices seem wrong. It was one of the reasons she didn’t accept her invitations very often. The other reason was running around the kitchen. The resemblance between Jen’s little boy and the twins was glaring. 

There was a noise in the hallway. ‘Daddy’s home early,’ Jen said, jumping up. Colin, Jen’s husband, Andy’s best friend, came into the kitchen. Jen kissed him. Their little boy jumped into his arms. 

Jen and Colin seemed happy to see each other. They seemed like they had the perfect marriage. The perfect kids, the perfect house. The truth would do so much damage to such a perfect life.

It was hard for Erin to look at Colin, but she did, smiling as he leant in for a polite hug. ‘Hello, Erin,’ he said, as if nothing had happened between them, as if she was nothing more than his wife’s friend, his best friend’s wife.

‘Hello,’ Erin said. She stood up. ‘I think that’s our cue to go home.’ The twins wailed in protest.