Dexter, I told you. I‘m working.‘

Okay, in that case,  do you know what? We‘ll leave it then. Just the bill, please, um . . .‘ Ian left and Dexter beckoned to Emma and in a low voice said, ‗Hey, look, is there any way I can, you know . . .‘

What?‘

Give you the money for the drinks.‘

Emma stared blankly. I don‘t understand.‘

What I mean is, is there any way I can, you know, tip you?‘

Tip me?‘

Exactly. Tip you.‘

Why?‘

No reason, Em,‘ said Dex. I just really, really want to tip you,‘ and Emma felt another small portion of her soul fall away.

On Primrose Hill, Dexter slept in the evening sun, shirt unbuttoned, hands beneath his head, a half-empty bottle of grocer‘s white wine warming by his side as he slipped from the hangover of the afternoon into drunkenness again. The parched yellow grass of the hill was  crowded with  young  professional  people,  many  straight  from  their  offices,  talking  and  laughing  as three different stereos competed with each other, and Dexter lay in the  centre of it all and dreamt about television.

The  idea  of  being  a  professional  photographer  had  been  abandoned  without  much  of  a fight.  He  knew  that  he  was  a  decent  amateur,  probably  always  would  be,  but  to  become exceptional, a Cartier-Bresson, a Capa or a Brandt, would require toil, rejection and struggle,and he wasn‘t sure if struggle  suited him. Television, on the other hand, television wanted him  right  now.  Why  hadn‘t  he  thought  of  it  before?  Growing  up  there  had  always  been  a television  in  the  home,  but  there  was  something  a  little  unwholesome  about  watching  the thing.  Now,  in  the  last  nine  months  it  had  suddenly  come  to  dominate  his  life.  He  was  a convert,  and  with  the  passion  of  the  new  recruit  he  found  himself  getting  quite  emotional about the medium, as if he had finally found a spiritual home.

And no, it didn‘t have the arty gleam of photography or the credibility of reporting from a war zone, but TV mattered, TV was the future.