’Do you want me to beat him up for you?’ Marcus leant back in the sofa.

‘What?’ said Namé Hara.

‘These babies haven’t disappointed me yet,’ he flexed his very-average-for-a-twenty-one-year-old-man biceps and gave it a kiss.

‘I don’t even know what you are talking about,’ she said.

‘You look like someone let you down,’ said Marcus, ‘who is it? I’ll beat him into next week.’

‘What if it’s a girl?’

Marcus opened his mouth, closed it, leant towards her with one eyebrow raised.

‘Then I’ll seduce her with my manliness.’

‘That I’d like to see,’ Namé Hara laughed.

‘What?’ a look of feigned disbelief on his face, ‘it’s my freckles, isn’t it? I’m telling you they’re all the rage with the ladies.’

‘Like that “girlfriend” you had?’

‘She’s still my girlfriend.’

‘Does she know it yet?’

‘Nah, I’ll tell her when the time is right,’ he winked.