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‘Thanks’

‘There’s nothing wrong with it per se But … Christ It’s not exactly dyna people or opportunities Round here they think it’s subversive if the tourist shop starts selling place mats with a different view of the h There had been an article in the local newspaper the previous week on exactly that topic

‘You’re twenty-six years old, Clark You should be out there, clai in trouble in bars, showing off your strange wardrobe to dodgy men … ’

‘I’m happy here,’ I said

‘Well, you shouldn’t be’

‘You like telling people what they should be doing, don’t you?’

‘Only when I know I’ht,’ he said ‘Can you adjust my drink? I can’t quite reach it’

I twisted his straw round so that he could reach it more easily and waited while he took a drink The faint cold had turned the tips of his ears pink

He gri you make a terrible cup’

‘You’re just used to lesbian tea,’ I said ‘All that lapsang souchong herbal stuff’

‘Lesbian tea!’ He almost choked ‘Well, it’s better than this stair varnish Christ You could stand a spoon up in that’

‘So even ’ I sat down on the bench in front of him ‘So how is it okay for you to offer an opinion on every single thing I say or do, and yet nobody else gets to say anything at all?’

‘Go on, then, Louisa Clark Give h ‘Do I have a choice?’

‘You could cut your hair It rant’

‘Now you sound like my mother’

‘Well, you do look bloody awful You could shave, at least Isn’t all that facial hair starting to get itchy?’

He gave me a sideways look

‘It is, isn’t it? I knew it Okay – this afternoon I a to take it all off’

‘Oh no’

‘Yes You asked me for ’

‘What if I say no?’

‘Ibits of food out of it And, frankly, if that happens I’ll have to sue you for undue distress in the workplace’

He sht sound a bit sad, but Will’s sht-headed with pride

‘Here, Clark,’ he said ‘Do me a favour?’

‘What?’

‘Scratchme nuts’

‘If I do you’ll let me cut your hair? Just a bit of a trim?’

‘Don’t push your luck’

‘Shush Don’t reat with scissors’

I found the razors and so foam in the bathroom cabinet, tucked well back behind the packets of wipes and cotton wool, as if they hadn’t been used in some time I made hiot him to tilt his headrest back a little and then placed a hot flannel over his chin

‘What is this? You’re going to be a barbershop? What’s the flannel for?’

‘I don’t know,’ I confessed ‘It’s what they do in the films It’s like the hot water and tohen someone has a baby’

I couldn’t see his mouth, but his eyes creased with faint mirth I wanted to keep them like that I wanted him to be happy – for his face to lose that haunted, watchful look I gabbled I told jokes I started to huain