This was a situation I could handle, perhaps things were on the wane with him. I didn’t get the sense of any hesitation when Jenny agreed to meet me at the bottom of Grafton Street, that very night. I wore black. My jeans were tight around my ankles but they looked the part. I splashed my face with a little aftershave. I could smell Hugo Boss as I left my flat and I jingled my keys in my pocket. When we walked by the Goths hanging outside the Central Bank, I felt tender towards them. They didn’t have a plan either. Jenny didn’t want to discuss Jerome with me, but I kept at it. Pointed questions. She seemed wary. The only information she volunteered was that he was a businessman. He owned something with his brother. She allowed me to hold her hand that night over the table in the Italian place on the square in Temple Bar. An empty wine bottle held a candle. I kept looking at it as the flame flickered and then looking at Jenny. Her eyes made me feel safe, like the sea on a fine day. The night sealed something. I wanted Jenny, but on account of Jerome I knew that I would have to wait for her. We didn’t arrange to meet again, and that is how I left it. Jenny knew where she could find me if she wanted to.

How do you make someone fall in love with you? You use charm but there has to be depth to it. You have to say all the right things and they have to flow naturally from you. You have to appear as though you do not have an agenda because that is too obvious. I was ready to use everything I had to lure Jenny but I was waiting for the right moment. I had to make her come to me. I had to make her want to come to me, this was my strategy.

Weeks passed and still nothing, not a thing from Jenny and I was beginning to worry if I had come across as playing it too cool. I asked Andy for advice on the Jerome situation one night. We had finished our shift and had gone over to the Music Club in Temple Bar. The outside of the bar was covered with posters, techno stuff and some singer-songwriter who was making a big noise at the time and the usual jingly jangly groups that were like fodder for the masses. Andy knew the bouncers, so we didn’t have to fork out. Dublin was like that back then – a city based on recognition.