Al glances again at the group at the bar. He tries to categorize them all but can’t quite make them fit. Their ages range from young to old but none of them quite belongs together. There is no possessive or familiar behaviour that suggests that any of the three men or the three women are an item, nor do any of them look alike. He wonders what the relationship between them is – perhaps they all belong to a club – and then his thoughts drift on to the girl Amy, and whether she has fallen in love with Cosmo. Clearly she knows nothing about Becks and, just for a moment, Al feels angry with Cosmo. He wonders if Amy is like Becks: late twenties, sophisticated, smart, cool, focused. Perhaps she is younger, pretty, casual, rather like the girl in the group at the bar, with long curly brown hair and an animated face, who is talking to the young dark-haired fellow.

The group is moving away, sitting down at a table, and Al gets up and goes to the bar to order his lunch.

Across the bar, Amy has been watching the man sitting alone at the window table and wondering if it could be Cosmo’s friend. She’s never seen him before around the town and it’s unusual to see a young man sitting alone in the bar, especially out of season. As they all talk, order drinks, choose their lunches, she wishes she had the courage to stroll over and ask him if he’s Al.

She turns back to talk to Sam, to ask him about the navy, but he deflects the conversation, describing a flat Cara has seen in Dartmouth.

‘It’s tough,’ he says, ‘trying to choose where to live when you don’t really know the area and you’re all on your own.’

Amy smiles at him, liking his concern. In different circumstances she could have rather gone for Sam.

‘I’ve just got a job decorating a flat that will be coming up for rent soon,’ she says. ‘Come and have a look and see what you think. Seems silly for Cara to be in Dartmouth when her family is here.’

Charley joins in, asking Sam how long he’s staying with Max, and the conversation turns to her part-time job in a primary school, and then he’s telling them about his year at university in Shanghai and those weeks he spent teaching English to Chinese children. Charley is really impressed, asks lots of questions, and Amy can see that Sam loved the experience.

‘Sounds to me as if you’ve got a vocation,’ Charley says. ‘Have you thought of teaching?’

Sam looks embarrassed and Amy says: ‘He told you just now. He’s going into the navy.’

Charley simply raises her eyebrows, as though the question still stands, and Sam shrugs.