James kicked out at the counter with the heel of his shoe. It felt a stupid, feeble gesture, even though the noise was gratifyingly loud. Probably loud enough for the woman, Gina, to hear. Maybe he’d get into trouble. He imagined himself mounting a defence, borrowing argumentative abilities he’d never had, finding them now it was too late. I paid for this ticket! Channelling the sour passengers he himself had had to serve, at King’s Cross. I suggest you concentrate on running a service that isn’t delayed every other day! Surprising the Welsh woman with his confidence. His indignation. It was nonsense, it was feeble and petty even in his imagination.

He needed to sleep. There were only three and a bit hours left to kill, now. He attacked the lid of the fifth can, jerking it upwards with such force that it made a little scratch in his finger. I’ll just get this down me and shut my eyes. But the sight of the phone was worse than the feeling of it in his pocket had been. It lay in its corner, daring him not to look at it, jeering that he couldn’t manage it. The unread messages were like an alarm going off. He buried his head in the thin pillow. But the sound of the alarm was burrowing into his skull; he could hear it even though it wasn’t there.

21

BERLIN, 05:02

I’ll keep trying to call him, wrote Steffi.

Me 2, Michaela began to type out, her finger skidding a little on the screen even though she’d kept one hand out of the bathwater specifically for typing duties. Pls stay in touch. It felt odd to be using these textual shortcuts with someone she did not know, especially as Steffi was writing everything out in full. Someone she’d never heard of an hour ago, since these days she paid no attention to who was living in the flat with James. Just to whether the rent was coming in – which it always did, because it was James.

‘Steffi’. She was Dutch. She looked young and sort of keen-eyed and clever on her profile; although there weren’t many photos, she wasn’t much of a sharer. She reminded Michaela a bit of the twenty-something business-influencer people who occasionally came to the gallery to give them frightening presentations about things like ‘click maximization’. Michaela wondered if there was anything between her and James, if maybe when all this blew over – but no. She couldn’t ask for a get-out like that. The universe didn’t owe it to her to find James someone new.