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‘You seem like you enjoyed it…’

‘I did,’ I reply, and I really mean that.

‘Thought so,’ he says, smiling. ‘I’m glad you’re enjoying the job.’

For the first time all day, the arcade feels peaceful. Not quiet – there are machines playing music, electronic voices announcing people’s demise, and a nearby game making an alarm sound that nobody seems all that concerned about. But you can tell that Jamie has gone, now that he isn’t filling every gap with a joke, an argument or a challenge.

Eddy looks across the arcade. His attention settles on one of the dance machines on the far wall. It has two metal platforms with coloured arrows on the floor and a screen above them that’s currently running a demo.

Eddy smiles at the machine, which intrigues me.

‘Are you any good?’ I ask him.

He looks at me. ‘At what?’

‘The dance game,’ I reply.

His smile disappears so quickly I almost believe I imagined it. ‘No.’

‘You were looking at it,’ I dare to point out.

‘I used to play it, when I was a kid, with my sister – she loved it,’ he confesses.

‘It’s hard to imagine you as a kid,’ I tell him. ‘Like, I don’t know, I can’t imagine you as anything other than what you are now.’

He laughs. ‘Well, I really was a kid, once upon a time; I wasn’t always six foot two,’ he informs me.

‘So, were you good?’ I reply.

‘Better than my sister,’ he says with a laugh.

He looks back at the machine.

‘I haven’t played in years.’

‘I used to love them too,’ I tell him. ‘I had one at home – for my PS One.’

‘Were you any good?’

‘Absolutely not,’ I admit. ‘But I was full of enthusiasm – and I had fun.’

‘Some of the slower songs were okay, on easy mode – I set a record at our local arcade,’ he recalls.

‘Okay, that means you were definitely good,’ I point out. ‘Show me.’

‘What?’

‘Dance for me,’ I insist, laughing at my own words. ‘Show me how it’s done.’

‘You’re serious?’ he says in disbelief.

‘You talked a big game…’

‘It was twenty years ago,’ he claps back. ‘But… okay, fine, I’ll play if you do.’

‘But I was terrible,’ I insist.

‘You can show me how it’s not done,’ he jokes.