“But he’s so young.” I blurt out the words before I can stop them.

“Oh, that.” Flora nods, almost disparagingly. “Well, you know. He’s some genius type. Never even bothered with university. He worked for Demeter years ago at JPH, when he was, like, twenty. But after about five minutes he went and set up on his own. You know he created Whenty? The logo, everything.”

“Really?” My jaw sags slightly. Whenty is that credit card that came out of nowhere and dominated the market. It’s renowned as one of the most successful brand launches ever. It gets used in marketing lectures and everything.

“Then Adrian got him to join Cooper Clemmow. But he goes off abroad a lot. He’s quite…you know.” She wrinkles her nose derisively. “One of those.”

“One of what?”

“Thinks he’s cleverer than everyone else, so, you know, why bother about other people?”

“Oh,” I say in surprise. That doesn’t sound like the Alex I met.

“He came to a drinks party at my parents’ house once,” Flora says in the same tone. “He hardly even talked to me.”

“Oh.” I try to look outraged on her behalf. “That’s…dreadful!”

“He ended up talking to some old man all night. About astrophysics or something.” She wrinkles her nose again.

“Awful!” I say hastily.

“Why do you want to know about him, anyway?” Flora’s eyes focus on me with more interest.

“No reason!” I say hastily. “Didn’t know who he was. That’s all.”


Nothing can crush my mood as I head home that evening. Not even the rain, which began halfway through the afternoon and has got steadily heavier. Not even a bus driving through a puddle and drenching me. Not even a gang of boys sniggering at me as I wring out my skirt.