She clinks her cup against his and smiles at him.

‘Thanks, Sam,’ she says.

He smiles back at her, thinking that Cosmo is a lucky man, and hoping for his sake that he’s got a really good reason for standing her up.

Jack comes in and pauses beside them.

‘Thought you’d be here,’ he says to Amy, ‘but I thought that Cosmo would be with you, not this young warrior.’

‘He’s had to go back to London,’ Amy says casually. ‘Some kind of emergency.’ She shrugs, almost indifferently. ‘Says he’s really sorry.’

‘Yeah?’ says Jack, disbelievingly. ‘Just couldn’t face being outnumbered. Ah, well. We’ll manage without him.’

He grins at Amy and goes to order his coffee. Sam and Amy stare at each other. Sam gives a kind of ‘told you so’ shrug.

‘You see? It won’t be a big deal if you don’t want it to be,’ he tells her. ‘You were really casual the way you told him. He took his lead from you. It’ll be fine.’

She shakes her head, as if in surprise. ‘I guess you’re right.’ She grins at him. ‘Just be sure you sit next to me for supper.’

He is filled with delight at the prospect. ‘You’re on,’ he says.

Jack waits in the queue. He feels relieved that Cosmo won’t be joining them at the pub this evening. Though he likes the lad it might have been less relaxed, more formal, with a stranger in their midst. He glances back at Sam and Amy, who seem to be toasting each other with their coffee cups, and he smiles to himself. He’d much rather see her with Sam than with Cosmo. Somehow, though he couldn’t have explained why, Sam seems to fit in better with them all. Cosmo is almost overconfident, smooth, showy. Sam is quietly strong; at ease in his skin, self-reliant. Jack would rather his girl was attracted to that kind of man than to Cosmo’s extrovert liveliness. But then again, who could tell what might attract a woman to a man or, for that matter, a man to a woman? He could never quite see what chemistry worked between Max and Judith, for instance. She’s so buttoned up, so proper, as if she needs to protect herself from ordinary people. Whilst old Max is such a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. Jack slightly wishes that Judith wasn’t coming to the party either – fears that she might put a blight on it – but he hopes that there will be too many of them for it to have any real effect. He intends to enjoy himself. He’s glad that Amy doesn’t seem too worried by Cosmo’s sudden departure, wonders what’s happened to make him back out, and rather hopes that it keeps him away for a while.