Chapter 6

Mark put his arms around me. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I thank my lucky stars every day that it was me you walked up to that evening on that street corner.”

“Me, too.”

I heard the front door open. “Only me,” Sam called out. A second or so later, he came into the kitchen. “You two at it again?”

“Sod off home!” Mark said.

“Shut up and put the kettle on.” Sam beamed. He and Mark had developed such a close connection. To an outsider they seemed to be hurling insults at one another, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Mark got up and did as Sam had requested.

“So where’s your side-kick?” I asked.

“He’s had to go and see his grandma in Manchester again. She’s been causing more trouble.”

“Oh, dear. What’s she done this time?”

“She’s been saying the staff at the nursing home have pinched her ration book.”

“But food rationing ended in the early 1950s,” Mark said.