‘I should see if the boy needs anything,’ the waiter said, turning to the first-aid cupboard.

‘I’ll do it,’ Tony said. ‘You can go now,’ he added, and the waiter made a confused sound as Tony shoved him out and forced the door shut until the lock clicked. Through the wall, the singer’s uplifting chorus continued.

It was vaguely romantic. James whispered: ‘Come here.’

Tony didn’t react immediately, so James opened his eyes and saw his cousin leaning face-first against the closed door. At first it was almost imperceptible, but soon Tony started grinding his forehead like he was in pain.

‘What the fuck are you doing here, Jamie?’ he said.

James noticed his cousin’s back filled the suit jacket to its limit, his big shoulders heaving and collapsing. ‘I came to see you,’ he said.

‘Do your parents know where you are?’

‘I don’t care.’

‘Listen, you can’t just-’ Tony said.

But James cut him off. ‘If you tell them where I am, I’ll tell everyone what happened.’

That stopped him. Tony turned and gave a complacent look. ‘You’re not going to tell anyone, are you,’ he said, but it was not a question.

James shook his head and opened his arms. ‘Come here,’ he whispered.

‘We’re gonna have to call your mum and dad, and we can just say that you and I got chatting about the Gold Coast.’

James nodded.

‘You got it into your head that you’d just come over.’

‘I hitchhiked,’ James said, arms still reaching towards his cousin.

Tony didn’t move, but he looked James in the eye properly for the first time since they’d lain together in the early light of the wedding day. Noticing the glistening in his cousin’s eyes, and remembering the harsh journey back to that gaze, James let out a sob.

‘Don’t cry, Jamie, it’s okay...’ Tony said, but the tears came heavily and James’s arms bounced onto his thighs.

‘No, it’s not,’ James said, and ran the back of his wrist across his face, sensing the obvious bulge of his penis and the harsh light draining him of anything that Tony might have found attractive. ‘I need a hug,’ he added.

But Tony had noticed the flecks of spew on his jacket. He hung it carefully on the back of the one chair and sat. The tight, bright shirt made him look gorgeous.

‘You’ve got to put it out of your head, Jamie. You just put it out, and then you get through the day, and if you find that it comes up, well, you just do something about it, you know...’

His cousin’s hands hung in the air between his knees, trembling like the end of his fringe, which hid the rest of his face. Only a silver chain shone out of the darkness beneath his neck.

‘Come here...’ James whispered.