Jane*, 31, also used to think she was destined to have a group. She moved to London after graduating from uni, and found a flat with her best friend from school and some other girls they’d met online. Finally, Jane thought, she’d be finding her crew – the one that would hang out in a local coffee shop (or maybe a pub) and become so close they felt like sisters. “I definitely had this idealised version of friendship in my head,” she says. “I really did imagine, like, Central Perk.”

But that’s not what happened. In the end, Jane and her flatmates occasionally spent time together – but at other times, she’d meet up with colleagues or old school friends. While others in her wider social network fell into distinctive sets, she never really did. “I now think that kind of perfect, super-close group is a bit of a myth,” Jane says. “Even my friends who have very, very close groups also have their own friends outside [that circle]. I think it’s just part of growing up.”

Why do we hate the idea of being a ‘floater friend’?