It’s like a doctor’s waiting room, thought Eram. If you’re the only one not flipping through some ratty back issue of a news magazine, you’re going to stand out. On that heavy-petting section of the promenade, Eram felt like a pervert because he wasn’t groping the girl seated next to him.

Gehna didn’t seem to notice. ‘Tell me something about yourself.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like, anything. I feel like I don’t know you at all. Who are you?’

It was too perfect an opportunity. Eram couldn’t help himself. He cradled the empty bucket of popcorn under an arm as if it were a gladiator’s helmet. ‘My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, general of the Felix Legions. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.’

‘Good one, Max. Would’ve been better if you were wearing a skirt.’

They watched the surf break gently in pale lines out against the bay. Maybe it was the dark cloak of the night that invited the telling of secrets, or maybe just because nobody had ever taken an interest in who he was before then. Whatever the reason, Eram started talking to Gehna. He told her about The Big Drop and how he hoped it would prove that dropping out of school to play poker hadn’t been a child’s fantasy but a feasible career plan. He told her of his fear that Faizl’s worsening mental health would keep him, Eram, from ever leaving home.

‘I know how that sounds. I mean, the guy’s basically looked after me my whole life.’

‘Oh, please. You’re seventeen. I could never do what you’re doing, I’m much too selfish.’ The awareness that Gehna was pregnant hit them at the same time. ‘I know, I know, but they say that once you become a mom it changes you. I hope that’s true, or this baby is doomed.’

‘Listen,’ Eram said. ‘What did you mean “for now”?’

‘Who said what now . . .?’

‘In your email. You said you’re keeping the kid for now. I don’t know if it works like that.’

‘You’re saying I can’t give it back after a few years?’ Gehna laughed. ‘Yeah, no, it’s just that the whole mom-for-life thing is such a big, scary idea. It’s easier to take it one day at a time. And speaking of moms, I’ve been meaning to ask—’

‘She died when I was about two.’

Gehna was sorry that she had brought it up. Her own mother made her miserable on a daily basis, and they fought like sewer rats, but she couldn’t imagine life without her.

‘Actually,’ Eram said, ‘that’s not true. It’s something I got used to telling people early on because the truth makes things horribly awkward for everyone. She didn’t die, she left.’

‘Left for where?’

‘I don’t know. Dad says she was depressed after I was born, and it was all too much for her. One day she packed a bag and left. She didn’t say where she was going. What kind of person just walks away from their family?’