It was a clear, starry night, the sky a bluish-black beyond the edges of the sodium haze of the city behind her. The silence was eerily intense, and Alice began to long for Larry’s slightly malodorous but comforting presence. What if someone had stopped him? What if he wasn’t coming? She had only been away from home for three and a half hours, and already she was craving her soft bed and a hot shower. Suddenly the Kennedy Estate didn’t seem like such a great idea. In fact, it seemed like a horrible idea – the prospect of a dirty, syringe-littered squat that stank of piss, when only four miles away was her lovely nest of a bedroom . . .

A soft whistle broke into her thoughts. Larry was whistling Bruno Mars’s ‘I Think I Want to Marry You,’ and it made her smile.

‘Psssst,’ she said. ‘Over here!’

There was a rustle and quiver in the bushes, then the thin silhouette of Larry emerged. He swore as he banged into the next table in the dark.

‘Ow! Shit!’

Alice had jumped up and hugged him hard. He was so thin that her arms reached all the way around him and the army duffel bag on his back. Sticking out of the pocket of it she felt something small and furry and, puzzled, closed her fingers around it. Then she laughed.

‘No way have you brought Spesh the tiger!’

‘Shut up,’ Larry said, and she could feel the heat coming off his face. ‘Don’t tell anyone.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t. It’s sweet. You’re awesome,’ she replied, finding his lips in the dark and kissing him as though it was the last kiss she would ever experience. Just as she was contemplating dragging him into the kids’ play area and shagging him on the bark-chipping carpet underneath the rope bridge, he pulled away.

‘Are you serious about hiding out in the Kennedy?’

They sat down together, holding hands like an old married couple. ‘Yeah. No. I don’t know. What do you think?’

Larry pondered. ‘I mean, we need somewhere inside to sleep, don’t we? Somewhere they won’t think to look for us. Have you got your sleeping bag?’

‘Yeah. And Helen’s yoga mat. And an inflatable travel pillow that my dad bought for long-haul flights.’ She couldn’t keep a note of pride out of her voice. Then she sniggered. ‘And you’ve got Spesh, so we’ve got a guard tiger. We’re all sorted.’

‘Fuck off,’ he replied, tickling her until she wriggled away, laughing.