Nell

At Priya’s thirtieth, in a queue for the loo that went on for forty minutes. Sam talked the whole time about bread. I went home and looked up how to make a starter.

Sam

At Priya’s thirtieth. Nell asked if I was in the queue and I said yes, which was not quite true. I would have stood there all night.

Nell

Sam did, on the platform at Tisbury, just as the doors closed. I said it back through the glass. He says he did not hear it, which is a lie.

Sam

Nell did. She will tell you it was me on the platform, but she had said it in her sleep a week before. I have a witness: the cat.

Nell

A picnic on the downs, a ring in a jam jar, and rain. Sam was so nervous he opened the jam instead. I said yes before he found the right jar.

Sam

I had a plan: sunset, a speech, the ring in a jam jar. What happened was rain, the wrong jar and Nell saying yes with her mouth full of scone.