“So, what happened last night?” I ask, wandering round while Charlie counts the till. “Did you make your move on Dave?”

“Kind of,” she says with her eyes on the money. “How did you and Luke get together?”

“He kissed me in Year Six. A hit-and-run in this game of chasey. My face was still burning when I got home. Mum thought I had flu. I waited two years for him to do it again.”

“Were you nervous?”

“Did you hear me? I waited two years. It might have been nerves, but it felt more like desperation.”

“So how did you get him to kiss you?”

“I think I said, ‘You idiot. Kiss me.’”

“I was the one who didn’t kiss last night,” she says. “I came close. The freaking cicadas were singing Barry White, and I couldn’t do it.”

“Who’s Barry White?”

“Love god. I’ll play him for you sometime,” she says. “How do you get to that last bit?”

“Again, I say, two years.”

“I’ve never kissed anyone, so it’s been sixteen years for me.”

I never had a problem going that last bit, but hearing that won’t help her. “Maybe you ease into it,” I say. “Take it a step at a time.”

“That’s what Dave said.”

“Dave’s a good guy.”

“Dave’s a great guy. Maybe I should just trip and land with my lips on his face.”

“Yeah, but Dave doesn’t usually get subtle,” I say, and then we’re doing that silent laughter thing, out of control at the thought of Charlie throwing Dave into the pool, her bikini top off and him still not getting it.

“Will you and Luke work it out?” she asks when we’ve settled.

I pick up a book of maps and flick through to one of the city. “I want to be as far away from him as possible, and when I’m away I wonder what he’s doing.”

“Do you go find him?” she asks.

“I don’t need ESP to know half the time he’s somewhere acting like an idiot.”

“So why do you like him?”

“Because the other half of the time he’s acting like Luke. He’s making me laugh and wearing that sleeveless T-shirt.”

“I was always jealous of the way he looked at you.”

“I was always jealous of you leaving here at the end of the summer.”

“You never really know what someone else is thinking,” she says. I nod and put down the map.