‘Fake.’

‘Course they’re fake. Whose aren’t?’

‘Well, Bella’s for starters …’

‘Don’t you talk about my daughter like that …’ Justin tried to be the stern father, then started giggling again.

‘And my lovely Sam’s. They are au naturel, as they say in these places.’

‘Yeah, you and your lovely Sam. That’s a good thing, mate, that you think of her like that. The only chick I ever felt like that about was Bella’s mum, Olivia.’ Justin looked wistful for a second. Then he snapped himself out of it. ‘But how can anybody expect a hot, red-blooded man to be faithful to one bird for the rest of his life? When there is so much beauty, wherever we look?’

‘My man, my man!’ said sleazeball Stefan, appearing out of nowhere with a trio of identical leggy blondes in Lycra minidresses.

‘See what I mean?’ said Justin to Mark, who laughed.

‘Meet Fifi, Gigi and Mimi,’ said Stefan, indicating the triplets, who simpered.

‘Triplets? For real?’ asked Mark.

‘Why settle for one when you can have three?’ winked Stefan. ‘Anyway, we’re on our way to the party. Join us later? The Li—’

‘Linda Lovelace boat,’ chorused Mark and Justin. They looked at each other and laughed.

‘Wotcha think, mate?’ said Justin.

Buoyed up with Pernod, cognac, cocaine and the balmy night air, Mark could feel his resolve weakening.

‘Oh, fuck it, why not?’

The Hawley Arms was heaving with young people who had taken an awful lot of time to look as if they didn’t care what they looked like.

‘Two snakebites, please,’ said Sienna to the very cute barman, who gave her and Sam an appreciative once-over. ‘Oh, look, there are the boys.’ She knelt down to muss her hair into an even wilder tangle, then stood back up and waved coolly in the direction of a table in the corner. A couple of lads with brushed-forward fringes waved back.

‘I can only see Mikey and Dan,’ Sienna said to Sam, sotto voce. ‘They’re like the lead singer and lead guitarist. I quite fancy Mikey actually, but don’t let on.’

‘Course not!’ Sam laughed. ‘What’s their band called?’

‘The Flaming Geysers.’

‘Cool.’ Actually, Sam thought the name sounded a bit silly, but she really wanted to fit in somewhere. The glamour world was only a means to an end (although she’d always thank it for introducing her to Mark); college life wasn’t turning out a bit how she’d hoped; if the indie scene was to be where she found her feet, she could do worse than befriending a couple of cool blokes in a band.

Pints in hand, the girls made their way towards the table in the corner.

‘Hey, Scotty,’ said one of them to Sienna.

Seeing Sam’s enquiring look, Sienna said, ‘Short for Mascot. Hey, Dan, hey, Mikey. This is Sam, my best mate from college. She’s like, mega-clever!’

Sam hid a smile at the change in the way Sienna spoke. Maybe she wasn’t quite as confident as first impressions suggested.