‘Really, Bessie Worrall – there is no need for that language! You should be ashamed of yourself.’ Mrs Hicks slammed shut her bedroom window.

Michelle stared at Bessie like she was a stranger. She looked down the road, as if planning to leave, and Bessie’s heart lurched with all it struggled to contain.

‘I’m sad if you feel that way.’ Michelle took a deep breath, as if what she had to say next required courage. ‘But as I told you earlier, I really like him, Bessie – and he really likes me.’

‘Did he say that to you?’ Bessie felt the sting of distress at the back of her nose and throat, but wanted the details, knowing she would chew over them, prolonging the hurt for the longest time. Her voice trembled and her eyes narrowed as she prepared to hear the confirmation that she knew would hit her like a nail in her heart.

Michelle nodded and a wide smile split her face, as if even the memory of his words lit joy within her. Bessie looked away – the sight of it was almost more than she could stand.

‘He made me a mixtape.’ Michelle put her hand on her jeans pocket and Bessie could see the outline of a cassette. Her arms fell to her sides, as if she had lost her core strength and was unable to hold them up. The gift of a mixtape spoke volumes. It was code. Giving someone a mixtape was a very big deal, a gesture of magnificent proportions. Proof that you wanted to share something precious: your music, your identity. It linked you, not only in thought, but while you lay on your bed and they lay on theirs, you were together, joined by the lyrics and poetry of the songs . . . A mixtape took a long time to make, especially if you were recording it off the Top Forty and had to keep pausing and recording to make sure you cut out all the talking. It was the most thoughtful, loving and intimate of gifts. Bessie had quietly longed for a mixtape and knew that while Lawrence made that tape, his thoughts would have been of Michelle . . . Making a mixtape for Michelle . . . and who knows when he did that? Maybe on a day he passed her a scrappy note and met her in the alleyway for sex?