For a second I didn’t quite realise what had happened, but I knew that something had. Fraser, still fiddling with the firelighters, seemed to go stiff. He stood up very slowly with the tongs in his hand and turned to look at Rocky. And then I realised. He’d never told Rocky his name. None of us had.

The fire seemed to shrink very quickly and draw all of the sounds in the room in towards it. Rocky was looking at Fraser totally casually, as if nothing had happened.

‘How …’ Fraser didn’t finish his sentence, taking one swallow and opening his mouth. The dry click in his throat was like a tiny piece of wood snapping.

‘There you go, pal,’ said Rocky, putting his cup down on the bench beside him and interlocking his fingers over his belly. ‘You getting there? You cottoning on?’

What the hell was happening? He – he knew him. Fraser was beginning to look pale.

Becca had stopped scuffing her feet. Her finger was pressing very slowly into a bit of molten wax that had pooled on the table around the bottom of the wine bottle.

‘You and me have a mutual friend,’ said Rocky. ‘Though he’s definitely more my friend than yours right now. Know who I’m talking about?’

Finn, Becca and I looked at Fraser. Fraser nodded.

‘You owe Badger some money.’ Rocky had a neutral, almost placid expression on his face.

Fraser’s shoulders sagged very slowly. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I know, I’m sorry, I messed up a bit on the outgoings.’

‘Sorry doesn’t cut it, big man. You’re three days late and that’s three days too many. Badger doesn’t do debts.’

Fraser was swallowing again, several times. ‘Yeah. I know. I’m sorry.’

‘You don’t know, otherwise you wouldn’t have done it, would you?’ Fraser didn’t say anything. Rocky rubbed a palm on the top of his scrubby hair, back and forth. ‘What are you, economics student?’

‘Engineering.’

‘You do a bit of maths in there, I bet.’

Fraser nodded again.

‘To be honest pal, I don’t even have my Standard and I could fuck up the numbers less easily than you’ve done. I’m not sure I believe that story. I think you’ve been keeping a wee bit of dollar-dollar back for yourself, maybe for this one.’ He nodded at me. ‘Don’t blame you for being a bit fanny-struck, she’s quite fit, but all the dosh in the world’s not going to do you any good if you’re floating somewhere down the loch, is it?’

I sucked in a breath. He couldn’t be – this was – my heart was jump-starting.

Fraser put his hand out, brought it back and covered his ear, and put it out again. ‘OK, now look man, I’m really sorry, I just – made a mistake, honest.’

Rocky stroked the stubble on his chin. ‘I’m just saying, pal, if you owe my man money, what happens is this. He gets very, very annoyed, and he calls me up, and he sends me to find you, and I go trailing round the city looking for you, and coming up here on the fucking train with the hill-bunnies, and getting the fucking minibus which goes once every two days, till I get to the bar from The fucking Shining and find out where you’re off to, and you know what? It’s a lot of bloody effort for a wee shite like you and the scrap of cash you owe him, so I’m thinking it might just be best to knock this one on the head, because I’m not coming all the way up here again like a fucking charity rambler.’