Chapter 16

He was saved by speeches. Amy’s mother told them all about her purple-haired punk of a daughter, who’d fought tooth and nail to never go to school again only to walk straight back in once she’d left university. Darren’s brother, who was called Josh, told them about a bull-headed twat of a boy who had changed only in that he’d gotten bigger. He ended by telling them all that thirty years ago, Mr and Mrs Burke had been sending Amy off to bed with a dummy, and now history was repeating itself. In true Darren form, the best man’s speech was ended by said best man being seized in a headlock by the groom and generally abused to gales of laughter.

And then Amy got to her feet, raised her glass, and made a toast that struck home.

“To our futures.”

Future.