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Callum, pulling him in tight. He felt like he’d never been kissed before. Callum had put his mouth on him, and that was that.
    “I’m not convinced,” Callum muttered and kissed his cheek lightly. “Going to let me go, there?”
    “No,” Jonah muttered, but then reminded himself that he was trying not to scare Callum away. Sighing, he backed off a pace.
    “So, what was your plan?” Callum asked brightly. “Something about a trial run?”
    “See if this works,” Jonah said. “As if we’d never met before. If it doesn’t click, we just pick up the friendship where we left off years ago.”
    Callum mulled over it. “I don’t think I can pretend never to have met you, but otherwise, yeah. Let’s do it. Chips first, okay, because I really need to eat something, then drinks in the Merry Cock, and we’ll go from there.”
    “The where?”
    “Oh, you wouldn’t have known the pubs, would you? The Cuckmere Arms, down by the river.”
    “I’m all yours,” Jonah said gravely, and noted the way Callum shivered at that with a warm sense of triumph.

2000
     
    T HAT YEAR , Callum nagged and nagged and nagged until someone agreed to take him to hear the choir sing. The person who offered, in the end, was his dad’s mum, who he’d always thought saw him as a bit of a disappointment. Maybe she just felt bad because Dad kept spending all his leave with Uncle Kev and that blonde cow instead of coming home to see his kids, like any decent man would (as Mum put it over the phone when she thought he and Leanne weren’t listening).
    Granny Linda had decided to take him to the Advent service, which he knew was a big deal because he’d heard Jonah talk about it last year. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but Mum had made him dress up smartly and promise to be on his absolute best behavior.
    “He’s had his Ritalin,” she assured Granny Linda, “but don’t be afraid to march him out of there if he starts to lose it.”
    “I won’t! I want to hear Jonah sing!”
    “He’ll be fine,” Granny Linda said, and ushered him to her car before Mum could fuss any more. As they drove off, Callum looked at her sideways and saw she looked pleased, more so than he’d seen before. As they waited to turn out of his road, she said abruptly, “I used to take your father and his sister to this. They weren’t interested, though. I haven’t been for years. I’m rather looking forward to it.”
    “I won’t spoil it,” Callum promised.
    “Your only job, young man,” she said firmly, “is to enjoy it.”
    The cathedral was dark when they arrived, with people lined up outside, talking quietly. The sun had set a couple of hours ago, and Callum wondered why they didn’t put the lights on.
    “Have they had a power cut?” he asked. “They need to check the fuses and then phone the electric board, unless they haven’t paid their bill. Is that why they collect money after? So they can pay the electric bill?”
    Granny chuckled. “I think they rely on donations for that, but tonight it’s deliberate. The service starts in the dark.”
    “But how will I see Jonah?”
    She smiled at him. “Wait and see.”
    They were shown to their seats by torchlight, and Callum tucked his elbows in and tried not to breathe too loudly. No one was talking, though he could tell he was surrounded by people just by the rustle of movement around him and the bobbing torches moving along where the aisles must be. He’d never been inside the cathedral before, but he knew how big it was on the outside, and he could only guess at how many people they could squash in here. He twisted around in his chair to see what he could make out in the dark, but the only thing he could see at all was a faint orange glimmer along the edge of the windows, which must be from the streetlights outside.
    He turned back round again to tell Granny, but then all the torches were switched off and the last rustles stopped. It was quiet in a way that was almost scary, and