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I take another tiny sip, because the damage is already done – no, wait, I’ve got a better idea.

‘We need to find the cork,’ I tell him. ‘It flew off somewhere… Maybe with some force, you could squash it back in?’

‘I… I don’t think they go back in, do they? Even with force?’

‘We have to try,’ I tell him. ‘Because as furious as she would be that I had opened her present, she would also revel in it, making me feel bad, shaming me to people, invoicing me for a new one and saying something about how I can’t afford it.’

‘Okay,’ he says, puffing air from his cheeks.

We both look around the room, but it’s nowhere to be seen.

‘It must’ve gone behind something,’ I suggest.

We search beneath the table, behind the stools and along the wine racks. Nothing.

Then I notice a narrow gap behind the large wooden cabinet at the far end. There’s definitely enough space for something small to have fallen behind it. I shine my phone torch to see.

‘Shit, there it is,’ I say.

Eddy steps forward and reaches behind, but he can only get so much of his huge arm down the back so far before he can’t go any further.

‘I can’t get behind it,’ he says. ‘My arm is too big. Yours will probably fit.’

I try to reach but I’m not tall enough.

‘Can you lift me?’ I ask. ‘If you can dangle me, I can probably reach.’

Eddy does as I ask. He squats a little behind me, picking me up by the hips, before raising me up and holding me above the cabinet. I reach out, my fingertips just touching it, but I can’t quite grab it.

‘A little more,’ I say, my voice strained.

He gives me an extra push and I do it, I get it between my fingertips, and hold it securely.

‘Okay, pull me out,’ I say.

Again, Eddy does as I ask, except I must have caught my dress on the heavy wooden cabinet, because I feel it snag on something. In the tug of war, between Eddy and the cabinet, it’s hard to say who wins. Eddy wins me, but the cabinet rips part of my dress from my body. And now it’s wide open at the front.

We’re about to laugh, but then I hear Tina calling us.

‘Brooke? Brooke, are you down there?’

Shiiit.

I hand the cork to Eddy and make my way to the bottom of the stairs.

‘Brooke?’

I look back at him as he tries to force the cork in, but he’s not having much luck.

‘Brooke?’

‘We’re on our way up,’ I call back.

‘I’m coming down anyway, I need more red,’ she replies.

She appears and looks absolutely furious, but when I look over at Eddy he’s standing next to the table, and the champagne box looks exactly as it did when we found it. I smile at him, then turn back to Tina.

‘Hello,’ I say brightly.