“That’s the way, Norman, old man! Hurrah!” Leonard pumped his fist into the air and looked like he couldn’t have been more excited if it was opening night of the Royal Variety.

Norman was about ten seconds into his first stumbling sentence before Big Al interrupted.

“Hang on, Norman! Look, sorry...wait a sec. If you don’t mind...do you mind? Does anybody mind if I butt in for a second? Norman’s mum?”

“Er, no. Go right ahead. And, um, it’s Sadie.”

Big Al flashed me an unsettling grin and a thumbs-up. Definitely thirty-five. It seemed nobody else minded either, especially not Norman, who was looking at Big Al like he might possibly be the second coming of Jesus.

“Okay, now. See, you’ve got to create a buzz, Norman, right? The crowd’s here to see you. You’re the man! So you’ve got to tease them a little. Know what I mean?” Strangely, Big Al sounded like he might just know what he was talking about. I sat up a little straighter.

“You see, it’s like a woman, son. You don’t give them everything they want all at once, now, do you? Thrill of the chase, boy. Little by little. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.”

Okay, then. It appeared Big Al had failed to notice that half of this particular crowd actually were women, but he plowed on.

“Introduce yourself, Normie. Give ’em a taste of what you’ve got and make that crowd want you. You know what I mean?”

He looked over at me and winked, then took a step forward and placed his hands lightly on Norman’s shoulders. I could see the outline of Hulk Hogan–esque quadriceps as he gently adjusted Norman’s stance on the crate and I wondered just how well he did do with the ladies. And whether there was a Mrs. Big Al waiting at home with a rolling pin to berate him for drinking the weekly grocery money away. And why on earth I was thinking about that all of a sudden. I decided I might be in need of a distraction of a far more useful kind.

“Come on, Norman, you can do it! You’ve got this!” My spontaneous encouragement came out quite a bit louder than I’d intended and I felt my face warm up as Big Al turned to look at me with a surprised chuckle.

“Well, will you look at that, lad. It’s working already!”

Nobody could ever say that Norman doesn’t take direction well, and he was pretty used to it after six years with Jax. He took on board what Big Al said to the letter, although I could only hope he’d forget the rest of the advice before any girls started to take an interest in him.

“Evening, all!” Theatrical throat clear. “Well, um...if it isn’t your, er...um, lucky night tonight!” Norman shot an anxious look over at Big Al, who was nodding enthusiastically as he drained his pint. Which looked like quite a talent in itself. He slammed the empty glass down on the bar and let out a whoop.