‘Nah, not so much – ha ha ha! – I got taken off a big job by the boss a couple of weeks ago. Back to the grind serving the documents, the domestic injunctions and the witness summons. Selling stuff to the newspapers what we get off the local coppers. Started doing some debt collecting, too. I’m pretty good at it. I reckon it’s because I’m small and unthreatening – ha ha ha!’

‘I reckon it’s because of your nose.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, it’s so thin that a bloke could cut himself if he lamped you in the face.’

‘Is that a remark?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, it’s untrue. You having that pint or not, big nose – ha ha ha!’

I picked up my pint and treated myself to a large gulp. I hated my first taste of beer all those years ago, but these days I can’t live without its prospect. I was the same with corned beef and coffee.

‘So, what was this big job you were working on?’

‘I can’t tell you that, mate, it’s highly sensitive.’

‘Fuck off is it! Come on, give us a sniff. Let’s have a think … Was it to do with staff fraud at a chemist’s or a chain of coffee shops?’

‘No, you’re not even in the right playpen – ha ha ha!’

‘Was it a celebrity divorce and you had to hang around the gym where the wife was having her noodles?’

‘Nah, listen, I can’t tell you, and to be honest you don’t want to know. It’s already got me into a palaver. The people involved are right nasty bastards. Let’s just leave it.’

His expression told me that it was indeed the end of this particular conversation, and I noticed that he hadn’t laughed once during this exchange. He seemed a bit flustered, a bit flighty. The bluster was gone. I hadn’t meant to put him on the spot and in truth I felt a bit of an arse.

I changed the subject to the football. He changed it to the personal lives of the secretaries in my office. I changed it to electric vehicles and he changed it back to the secretaries. I went to the toilet.

As I stood at my favourite urinal I felt a sudden rush of the sadness feeling. I had been in London for nearly two years and still hadn’t really made any worthwhile connections. I kept myself to myself at work, hiding away in my office and never socializing with any of my colleagues. We had nothing in common apart from our caseloads and work-related gossip about clients and court staff. This pub, I realized, was the beginning and end of my social life.