Kyle grinned back at him, pleased at the compliment. He was only eleven years old and already on the circuit as a drug courier. He’d been doing it since he was seven. Gangs had identified him and groomed him and when he wasn’t at school, which was most of the time, he spent his days on runs. He drew the only income for his family of five. His dad left years ago when he was small, and his mum was a user herself with four kids all younger than Kyle.

He’d started coming to the centre a few months ago and Jeremy and the volunteer team had put a loose strategy together to encourage him to keep coming to the youth club. He was a smart kid, quick too, thought Paul, as another ball bounced past him – but he knew it was just a matter of time before Kyle started on drugs himself. He thought this privately – Jeremy, the optimist, was confident they could show him a different path – but for Paul, as he knew from his own experience, some things were just inevitable.

‘I win!’ crowed Kyle as he slammed his table-tennis bat down.

‘Good job, mate!’ replied Paul as he conceded defeat. ‘Now, I’m off for a coffee to recover.’

‘Haha, on you go, mate, with your tail between your legs!’ Kyle laughed.

Paul had been distracted during the game. Slavic Girl had been lounging on the sofa with some other girls and he could see from the group of guys surrounding her that he wasn’t her only admirer. He discreetly watched as she managed the group with ease, gently flirting and then retreating, until the guys were completely hypnotised. She could have asked them to jump off a cliff by the time the conversation was over, and they would have gladly done so.

In his mind, he was trying to plan the perfect opening to meet her. He wasn’t some stupid teenager, he was a grown man and if he wanted her – which he did, oh did he ever – then he was going to have to play a smart game. He casually walked to the coffee machine, keeping her in his line of sight. He could still hear Kyle crowing over his win and a flash of pleasure went through him that for just a moment Kyle could experience what it was like to be a kid.

But then, Slavic Girl looked over at him, and all thoughts of Kyle flew out of his mind. It took her less than a second to dismiss him and Paul curled his fist, supressing the anger that had ignited at the dismissive tilt of her head.

Time for plan B.

*