Jack had never really had a specific job in mind. Other people at university had seemed to really know what they wanted. Law, or a master’s degree, or to work in sustainability or have a job in publishing. A girl he had talked to at a party once had really wanted to be an actuary. Jack had googled it afterwards and it still hadn’t made much sense to him. But he’d just gone back home and then got the job at the garden centre. He knew that he wouldn’t work at the garden centre for ever, obviously, but bumbling along hadn’t really bothered him. And his mum didn’t mind, unlike other people’s parents, who did seem to really mind. Jack didn’t know what his dad would think, as he’d left Jack’s mum when Jack was four and Maisie nine. He didn’t mind – his mum was brilliant, and his dad wasn’t, so he knew which one he’d rather had stuck around, though this news sometimes seemed to make other people sad on his behalf, and Jack wouldn’t know what to say.

Anyway, he’d been pleased when he got the job at Green Genie. Jack had told Johnny straight away, and he’d been delighted. He handed in his notice at the garden centre – they were sorry to see him go, they said – but Jack was excited. It felt like he was going on an adventure. He went to the bus station near the Arndale with his rucksack and bin bag of extra things, as well as the packed lunch his mum had made him. He got on the coach and watched his city slip away as they got on to the motorway, following the big blue signs to London. He remembered when he turned up in Victoria Station in the early evening, on the Saturday night before he started his job, and he tried to work out how to get on the Underground to go to his sister’s house. He’d seen a group of people his age near the station, spilling out of a pub on to the road, holding their pints and laughing and smoking, and he’d thought, hey, this could be fun.