Is it just ME?

Or could this be the summer of the singleton?

MY PHONE is ringing off the hook. ‘Why don’t James and I come over to you on Friday night?’ a friend suggests a little too eagerly. Another text pings in: ‘When we drive up to London, can we stay over?’

I have never been so popular. Everything has changed since Boris Johnson made the announcement that single adults in England can now form a ‘support bubble’ with one other household, allowing them to meet indoors and stay overnight without the two-metre rule.

Lockdown has been tough for singletons. No hugs or meals out and only the cat to talk to. In the first months we lived for Zoom chats with kindly couples and families. ‘ How are you coping?’ they asked, glancing at their watches, wondering how long until MasterChef was on.

Then, just as the rules eased and singletons mastered socially distanced dates and picnics outside with friends, the heavens opened. Rain stopped play.

But now, suddenly, everyone wants to see me. At my house. Thanks to the new rules, I can have friends over for dinner or to watch a film. Or I could, if I can remember how, even break the sex ban with a chosen other.

It’s a satisfying change for all of us who have felt like the demographic the government forgot. Now it’s like having a private members club everyone wants to join.

We can only invite one other household. But the beauty is we get to choose.

As I sit here flicking through the invitations from friends, it feels like a glorious moment. It won’t last, of course, but, after a shaky start, the summer of 2020 might just be the best time ever to be single.

We were the demographic the government forgot. Now we’ve never been so popular!