‘Well, first, I give you a receipt for your payment, then I hand the money over to Mr Gold, like any business arrangement. The deeds are already in your name, so there’s no need for me to draw up any paperwork, and you carry on just as you are. Good luck.’

That was it; in less than an hour, it was all over and done with. How crazy was that?

Tony wanted to leave as quickly as possible, just in case there was another condition or something he had missed in the letter. He thanked the solicitor and almost yanked Jake out of the office.

Even when they were standing in the street outside the solicitor’s office, neither of them spoke; they were dumbfounded. They had saved every penny and had been seriously stressed out about today’s meeting. They’d even tried to gauge what the price of the club would be, based on the cost of other properties in the area. They had been tested, Tony knew that. Were they serious businessmen or not? They had proved themselves, and that was the main thing.

Tony felt a little disappointed that Ralph Gold hadn’t been there. He would like to have met him in a professional manner, even do business with him, but for Ralph Gold, the time was obviously not yet right.

It had been months since Tony and Jake had met Ralph and his wife Julie, when they had come to the opening of the club. Since then, they had heard nothing. What would it take to get an appointment with Ralph Gold and his business associates?

Tony and Jake got into the back of their chauffeur-driven Jaguar. ‘For God’s sake, Tony, say something,’ said Jake. He was waiting, even though his own brain was spinning.

‘I don’t really know what to say, Jake, really I don’t. The club is actually ours, can you believe that? We own the club, it’s all bloody ours!’ For the first time since the meeting Tony burst into laughter and he beamed. He grabbed hold of Jake and hugged him. He felt like crying. There was a lump in his throat as he hugged Jake even tighter.

When they got back, it seemed to Tony the club looked different; suddenly, it all seemed different. This was his club, for real, and that seemed to make it take on a whole new aspect. Sitting in his office with Jake, explaining to Sharon everything that had happened, Tony at last felt like lord of the manor.

He had come a long way since sleeping out on the dark, cold streets of London. Suddenly, he felt charitable. One of the first things he was going to do was fulfil the crazy idea that Jake had had, a long time ago.

The two of them had needed to get cleaned up and Tony had taken Jake to the twenty-four-hour toilets he and his mother had once used. They were a place where a lot of the homeless went to wash – or even sleep, when the weather was bad. He was going to have them refurbished. He’d have new basins put in, and new toilets, and properly tiled walls, to get rid of all the mould and the cockroaches. Yes, that would be a good place to begin.