‘That’s how me and Ida started, friends. Her parents had a shop and I’d go in twice a day, spend all me money on smokes. Then when I worked out I couldn’t afford to keep doin’ it I said, Well, Ida, you probably noticed I smoke too much. The fact is, I never touched fags before I met you, and I can’t afford to keep it up. So how’s about we go see a movie together?’

‘That’s how it started?’ Peter asked.

‘Yep. We went to see this Clark Gable film, which was horrible, last one I ever saw, and halfway through she’s snoring.’

Peter, doubting. ‘Snoring?’

‘And I’m thinkin’, Should I just get up and go?’

‘You didn’t?’ I asked.

‘Oath, I’d paid. Went inta her shop the next day and she wouldn’t talk to me. Another five years before I went in again, and she’s still there, and I said, You forgiven me yet? And she said, Just about, and it was all on again.’

What’s that got to do with Vicky? I thought. Every story led back to Ernie.

Peter said, ‘I reckon you could do worse than Vicky.’

‘She’s okay, but I got a few more things to do before I worry about that stuff.’

‘It’s never too early.’

As he said this, and as I saw the nape of her peach-coloured neck, I had to agree: it was never too early.

‘Just don’t appear to keen,’ Ernie said.

‘How’s that?’ I asked.

‘If they think you’re interested … that was my mistake. Draw ’em out, Clem. Make ’em work for it. What d’you reckon, Pete?’

‘I wouldn’t know.’

Ernie nudged him. ‘Go on, you can tell us.’

‘That was a long time ago.’

‘What was?’

‘Second-year law. But she found someone who’d earn more than me. Lucky she did, or she’d be livin’ with Davo and Mum.’

‘What was her name?’

‘Mandy.’

I guess none of us thought it decent to ask. Anyway, I knew—we all knew—that Peter had made promises to his family.

Pop screwed the sheet of paper into a tight ball.

‘Not so sure?’ I asked.

Then he flattened it on his knee, refolded it and put it in his pocket. ‘No point worrying about women.’

‘Why?’

‘They come along soon enough. Your nan came in with her dad to get their car done, and she’s watchin’ me change a tyre, and she says, That’s okay, and I said, You like cars, and she said, What’s to like? And that was it.’

‘What?’

‘I got her address from the office, went around that night, said to her dad, Car runnin’ okay? And he said, Not bad. And I said, Righto, I reckon me and Trish should go for a ride. And he said, You drive a Vauxhall? I said, Easy. And that was it.’