Tony pushes his pitch into a wheedling softness that turns his voice breathy. ‘You both do. Every time I see you. Even for a minute or two. Ain’t forgot Mum neither.’ Tony pushes the second bag towards Jess. She looks at it but doesn’t accept the offering.

‘Little something. Don’t mean nothing.’

Jess takes the bag, eyeing it with a distaste often seen on the faces of dog walkers as they straighten their backs in the park with a plastic bag held at arm’s length.

‘Drop you off?’

She shakes her head.

At the rebuttal, remorse makes Tony appear younger. Though the sigh and sympathetic nod that follow suggest the sagacity of an older man. He turns about and scoops up his daughter.

‘Can I ride it outside school?’

‘If we get a move on.’

Jess surreptitiously peers inside the bag drooping from her fingertips and sees a box of Black Magic chocolates. An apple. A handwritten envelope containing a greeting card.

As if throttling a chicken, she wrings the neck of the bag shut.

The doors of Tony’s car close. Izzy’s laughter dims then mutes as the passenger side is sealed, leaving Jess in a suddenly greyer world. Traffic shudders on the main road. A car horn blares. A distant siren suggests that someone else’s day has endured a start far worse than her own. Small comfort.

4

At the crowded bus stop, indifferent faces surround Jess. Eyes hard and minds preoccupied with their own struggles on another grey day, chilled by the cold damp air. A bleak piece of waste ground lies behind a chain-link fence, parallel to the queue. A distant industrial estate cramps the horizon. A few feet from the bus shelter, a muscular dog dumps a crap on the scruffy verge. Its squat owner doesn’t pick up the steaming mess and plods on, surly and huffing.

A petulant moped screams amidst the grinding traffic. Another two buzz in pursuit. In the brazen din of their engines, Jess can’t hear her phone ring but the handset vibrates against her hip. She hurriedly extracts it from her jacket and looks at the screen.

‘Oh, piss off.’ She answers the call with a fake smile. ‘Sheila. How are—’

‘I would imagine you’re there now.’

Jess winces. ‘Nearly. On the bus—’

‘Cutting it fine.’

‘I—’

‘This morning’s call is to emphasise how important a client Mrs Gardner is to this agency. So, under no circumstances – and I mean this, Jess – can there be a repeat of what happened last time.’

‘Like I already said, Sheila, stuff’s in place. With custody. And me and Izzy are looking to move—’

‘So I’m reminding you of the assurance you gave me that your personal problems won’t affect your work. Again. This includes punctuality.’