‘Okay, then,’ she said tersely. ‘I’ll come with you, only if you’re going to throw up, don’t do it all over Neptunia, right? You should have told me earlier you were feeling crook. Geeze, kids are pains! I think right now I’ve finally made up my mind never ever to be a mother!’

But she was nice to him on the fourteen tram, and when they reached Victoria Road, she didn’t just dump him at the alley entrance and whisk off to her appointment. She walked all the way with him and he was ashamed of his deception which she so readily believed. An unseen dog barked and launched itself furiously against iron panels at the sound of their passing footsteps. He skittered around to the far side of Angela, hoping she didn’t notice how his direction veered, or guessed the reason. Thelma had told him, sniping at modern manners, that men always used to walk on the gutter side of a street when out with women, so if a passing car splashed mud, the lady’s dress wouldn’t get dirty. Maybe Angie would think he was just being excessively polite, even if there was no traffic up the alley.

‘You want to go in and take it easy,’ she said when they reached Thelma’s gate. ‘Put a damp cloth on your forehead. Or eat some salt, isn’t salt supposed to be good for heat exhaustion, or is that for something else? Anyhow, you run in and lie down.’

‘Can I come over tomorrow?’

‘Strewth, what do you think I’m running, a playgroup centre? Oh, all right, then…don’t look like that, I didn’t mean it. Tell you what, tomorrow I’ve got to go out and see my mother for her birthday, even if it is over. Want to come, too, if you’re feeling up to it?’

‘But…she won’t want me there. She doesn’t even know me.’

‘Yeah, but I’d kind of like you along. She’ll think you’re a nice change from Jas and Rick and some of my other pals, that’s for sure. It’s sometimes…well, a bit difficult at my mum’s. She gets a bit narked about things, can’t say I blame her, but if I’ve got a mate along, a girlfriend or someone, she doesn’t carry on quite so much. Nagging and that. I’ll give her a ring and tell her there’ll be one extra for lunch. You call in for me the same time as today, all right?’