She agreed and we headed up Aungier Street to hunt for chips. I found a greasy spoon near the top of the street and ordered two singles. While I was waiting for the chips, Jenny decided that she wanted nothing less than a batter burger. I felt a mixture of embarrassment for her and an unwarranted anger. I couldn’t understand why she opted for a batter burger when she could have a spice burger. In the end I did what any gentleman would do and I got Jenny what she wanted. We were content in that kind of greasy way with our late-night feed. We went outside clutching our brown paper bags. But the contentment didn’t last. I was pissed and it seemed to make sense at that moment to have a go at Jenny, she was fair game. I was angry, too, that I was subjected to mayonnaise on my chips because I hadn’t thought to ask the girl with the spotty skin behind the counter for tomato sauce. Her acned face had been merely inches away, and through the steam and grease of the chipper I had seen, not only large bottles of ketchup lined up, but bowls of sachets as well.

I wasn’t good with things festering and I started on about Jerome. What a fucking coincidence it indeed was meeting him like that at the club. I had to know if she had spotted him first or was it the other way round?

I felt the need to point out that there was a significance to be drawn from such a distinction. But I wasn’t in any state to say what that significance might be.

I began a rant about Jerome wanting her back and that she had been encouraging him, talking to him. I said he was an over-confident prick and that I could tell that immediately from the first time I saw him. The way he swanned into the Crown that night. Jesus Christ, anyone would have thought that he owned the bloody place the way he was going on. And his clothes, I shouted, his clothes, what was he wearing?

We were becoming louder and I knew well that I was losing the run of myself. I was too drunk to make any proper sense, and people were beginning to look over to us as if they were monitoring my reactions. I started to experience a sense of desperation that I wouldn’t be able to close down the argument. That often happened to me, that inability.

And then I said that she was obviously still into him.

She tried to explain that Jerome was keen to remain friends with her and I laughed in a way that could only be deemed hysterical.