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took a deep breath, wheezed, and raised her head, facing him.
    ‘ Eat my lunch in the sound booth! I’m sorry, that’s just so funny. It’s ninety five pence for the tea by the way,’ Samantha replied, still smiling with laughter.
    ‘ I have to say I’ve told much better jokes and had less of a reaction,’ Jimmy responded as he reached into his jacket for his wallet.
    ‘ Oh if only you knew how amusing that was. I mean if I ate my lunch in the sound booth that would imply I have nothing better to do with my lunch hour than sit in the sound booth and goodness that is so not true. I mean who would want to sit in a dark, dingy, sound booth on their own?’ Samantha exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
    ‘ I don’t know, I presumed it was a quiet place away from everything. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in wanting a little quiet now and then,’ Jimmy told her.
    ‘ No, for some people that’s just fine, but not me. I’m not one for quiet,’ Samantha stated, the words almost catching in her throat as she spoke them.
    ‘ No? So does that mean you’re a woman who knows how to party?’ Jimmy enquired, taking a sip of his tea.
    ‘ Party was going to be my middle name until my dad suggested Margaret. Not that my middle name is Margaret, it was just his suggestion, at the time,’ Samantha said, wishing she had never started this conversation.
    ‘ I see,’ Jimmy replied with a nod.
    Samantha had never felt so much of a fool as she did now. What was she saying? It was like some horrid Harry Potter style goblin had taken control of her mouth and planted random things in it. Any second now she would be talking about owls and broomsticks.
    ‘ I don’t have a middle name,’ she blurted out, still having no control over her voice.
    ‘ No? That seems a shame, since your dad had his heart set on Margaret,’ Jimmy enquired.
    ‘ My sister has a middle name, it’s Charlotte. Cleo Charlotte Smith. She had a spate of making people call her CC for a while, when she was younger, but now it’s just Cleo,’ Samantha continued to talk.
    ‘ Why don’t you join me and have some tea, you were right, it’s very good,’ Jimmy suggested, amused by the conversation.
    ‘ I can’t really, I’ve got all this tidying up to do,’ Samantha answered and she waved the tea towel she was holding behind her.
    This only emphasised the sparklingly clean mirror and brass work, the freshly cleaned glasses, all arranged in size order and the neat rows of snacks all stacked identically.
    ‘ I insist, let me buy you a tea,’ Jimmy spoke, getting a note out of his wallet.
    ‘ No, no, that’s OK, I’ll just have a glass of water. It’s quite warm in here, must get the heating looked at,’ Samantha remarked, still perspiring due to embarrassment.
    She picked up a glass and filled it with water from the mixer tap. She took a large gulp and then brushed away some imaginary dust from the bar top.
    ‘ So is there anywhere else you work in this building? I’m beginning to think you run this place single-handed,’ Jimmy said, looking at Samantha as she drank some more water, tipped the rest away and began to wash up the glass.
    ‘ I sell ice creams,’ she blurted out.
    Goodness! The ice cream, she really did need to do something more permanent with those boxes.
    ‘ Really.’
    ‘ And programmes - you know, I’m one of those women who walks up and down the aisles holding a programme above her head. And in the interval I hold the programme over my head and have an ice cream tray round my neck, until it gets really busy and then I have to lose the programme because you can’t really serve ice cream one handed, not when you have to take lids off of tubs and dispense the little wooden spoons,’ Samantha babbled on.
    ‘ I can imagine,’ Jimmy answered, looking at her with interest.
    ‘ I couldn’t run this place, that’s Dave’s job. He has years of experience in managing,’ Samantha told him.
    ‘ D’you want to know something