Joy, relief, giddiness. This was certainly good news. In fact it was so good that I didn’t know how to suitably react, all I was capable of doing was smiling until my face hurt. She seemed upset. All I wanted to do in that instance was throw my arms around her, to take away her pain and to give her a small part of my happiness.

It mustn’t have been easy, I said. I asked her how Jerome had taken it and she said, badly.

I could well imagine it – the hurt on his face, Jenny rejecting him like that. In a way I almost felt sorry for him, but maybe he knew it was on the cards, in any event his loss was my gain. She was here after all. I stacked some glasses and there was a silence between us. She seemed not to know what to do with herself after her announcement. She wore a boyfriend-style tweed coat and had a red scarf tied delicately around her neck. Red brought out her cheekbones. I had always believed that good things would come my way. Love was coming my way, and it was gripping me by the throat but I had to be careful with Jenny, she wasn’t a piece of meat ready to be rolled out to the next hungry male that wanted her. Something had happened between us already, we had had that physical connection, just the one time but it had felt so right, so true, and now Jenny was here. This business of Jerome had been merely a barrier. And the barrier had been lifted and I had not controlled the lifting of it, Jenny had.

And I kept smiling. I asked her if she could call back in later, around closing time and we could go back to my place and have a chat or a drink or something. She said that she would love that, and I touched her hand gently and I said, that’s brilliant, Jenny.

She headed off then and left me to my work.

There was always something to be done at the Crown even when it was quiet. That’s what Andy had told me on day one, and he had made it pretty clear to me that he didn’t care for any messing. I believed him. It was this understanding that kept our relationship on an even keel. We did the work, we never left customers waiting unnecessarily unless the customer happened to be a drunk suit acting the cunt. We had some fun.