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‘But when Sali first suggested I apply for a trainee manager’s position I thought she was mad.’ He leaned back from the table as the waitress arrived to clear their plates. Both he and Rhian had opted for the three-course, ninepenny lunchtime special: brown soup followed by pork chops, swede, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, and gravy; and for dessert, jam roly-poly and vanilla custard. The portions were liberal enough to satisfy the hungriest navvy, and he had only managed to eat a quarter of his jam roly-poly. But Rhian had given up halfway through her dinner and barely touched her dessert.
    â€˜Anything wrong with this, miss?’ The waitress poked at Rhian’s roly-poly with her spoon.
    â€˜Nothing, thank you. I’m just not used to eating like this in the middle of the day,’ Rhian apologized.
    â€˜Tea or coffee? Both are served as part of the special.’
    â€˜Tea, please,’ Rhian answered.
    â€˜Me too, please.’ Joey leaned towards Rhian again as soon as the waitress left. ‘In answer to your question, yes, I am happy working in Gwilym James. Very happy. I never saw myself wearing a suit to work every day, or managing a store, but I have always liked people.’
    Trying not to sound as if she were carping, she murmured, ‘Especially women people.’
    Trusting that honesty would prove the best policy, Joey confessed, ‘I took Sara to the Empire Theatre once. When I invited her to come out with me again, she refused. I never asked her again.’
    â€˜The show was that bad?’
    â€˜The show was fine.’ He had the grace to look ashamed. ‘In fact it was so good I took her best friend to see it later in the same week. Both of them were furious when they found out.’
    â€˜They had every right to be angry.’
    â€˜I was only seventeen. I’ve done a lot of growing up during the last five years.’
    â€˜And now you only go out with one girl at a time?’ she smiled.
    â€˜I’ve spent so much time building up trade in the store during the last two years I’ve hardly gone out with any girls.’ He fell serious. ‘I really am looking for someone special. Someone I can spend the rest of my life with.’ He reached out, intending to cover her hand with his, but she pushed her chair back from the table and moved her hands out of his reach, just as she’d done in the teashop in Tonypandy.
    â€˜How many girls have you said that to?’ She was growing warier of him by the minute. Already, she was beginning to understand why so many women liked him. He was easy company, and he was confiding his thoughts as if she were the only person in the world he could talk to.
    â€˜None,’ he answered, ‘and not just lately – ever.’
    â€˜Do you expect me to believe you?’
    â€˜It’s the truth, but knowing what the gossips say about me, no. And before you tell me again that this is an outing based on friendship, let me explain. I love my family to bits, but there have been times when I’ve hated being the youngest. Lloyd is nine years older than me; Victor, six. They were allowed to do everything that mattered years before me. Go to school, leave school, wear long trousers, stay up late, work, take out girls – and that’s without bringing drinking and pubs into the equation. But I’ve never been as jealous of either of them as I have been since they married. Victor and Megan are so wrapped in one another and their farm I sometimes wonder if the rest of the world exists for them. And I only have to see the way Sali looks at Lloyd to turn green with envy. Not that I want Sali to look at me in that way,’ he clarified hastily. ‘But I do hope that one day I can be part of a marriage as strong as theirs.’
    â€˜They are happy together.’ Rhian didn’t dare tell him that she too envied Sali and Lloyd’s close relationship. Or how much she dreamed of being a