‘It’s very nice to meet you too, Mark. Please call me Cormac, as I think we have a lot in common.’

He stopped, and the fear had left his face.

‘Oh, what’s that then?’

‘It appears that Annie here never stops talking about the both of us!’

He felt a sharp pain in his shin and was glad she was wearing trainers. Mark smiled at him as they followed him up the stairs. He turned as he reached the top and shouted over the noise.

‘Hey, Cormac!’

‘What?’

‘I knew you were too short to be a Mormon!’

42

The noise stopped as soon as they entered the crowded living room. It started immediately again, once those who were still coherent established they weren’t actually the police. Cormac glanced around the room he’d furnished with Annie only three months previously. It was unrecognisable. Every space on the wall was covered with all manner of posters, advertising anything from bands he’d never heard of, to theatre shows he’d never seen, to obscure films requiring degree level French or German to be fully appreciated. The two neat settees he’d bought were draped in what looked like Indian saris and were now accompanied by several beanbags of various shapes and sizes. Every available space was occupied by boys who appeared to be cloned from Mark and equally as drunk, or girls who looked severely malnourished and swigged the same blue liquid now adhering his shirt to his back. The music was unrecognisable to him; all bass and drumbeats.

He looked at Harry, who was cuddling Claire under his giant arm.

‘Do you know the music, Harry?’

The big man shook his head.

‘No I don’t, and you know the old saying, don’t you, my friend?’

Cormac shook his head.

‘If you don’t know the music, you’re at the wrong party!’

‘Whose old saying is that, then?’

Harry smiled and pointed towards Annie in the kitchen.

‘I think it’s actually one of mine. Forget the music though, by my watch, we’ve about half an hour before we have to shoot off. I think you need to speak with Annie, don’t you?’

Cormac turned, and after five minutes of trying to plan the pathway of least resistance to her through the mass of bodies in his way and another minute in executing the plan, he was standing next to Annie, who was busy pouring two drinks into dirty pint glasses. She handed one to Cormac.

‘This really is a great surprise, Dad. I didn’t think I would get to see you again until Christmas. I can’t wait to spend some time with you at the farm, just the two of us together again.’

He felt his heartbeat quicken.

‘We can lock ourselves away. Go on some of those long walks I used to hate as a child but now can’t wait to do. We can even have a couple of days away together if you like?’