Cal just kept talking. Matt wished he would stop: he tried to avoid Cal as much as possible when he was at home, and it didn't seem fair that he should have to put up with him at work, too. He didn't even know why Cal was in the shop: he hadn't bought anything, he hadn't even looked at anything. Matt supposed he was just bored.

"How is your girlfriend, anyway?" Cal asked Matt.

"She's well" Matt replied.

"Really? Really really well?"

"Well, okay, not really really well, but she's well. She's . . ." Matt hoped that Cal wouldn't pick up on his equivocation, but obviously Cal was more bored than Matt realised.

"What?"

"Nothing, she's fine."

"If she's so fine, how come you don't spend as much time with her as you used to?"

"What?"

"I notice, man" Cal said. "I know how much I used to see you, and I know how much I see you now, and I see you now more than I used to. You're not hanging out with her as much as you used to."

"Yeah, but -"

"Or is she not hanging out with you as much?" Cal asked mischievously.

"It's a natural progression" Matt said defensively. "That's what happens to couples when they go out for a while. Not that you'd know" he added, trying to hurt Cal to get him to shut up about it. "None of your relationships have lasted longer than three months."

"Fuck, that long, seriously?" Cal tried to remember. "Oh yeah, that was Marnie. But she was fucking great, man. She was totally worth three months."

"You were cheating on her half that time!"

"Yeah, but I felt bad about it." Cal picked up a C.D. and Matt hoped they might be about to change the topic, but he put it down again and said: "Anyway we're talking about you. And your girlfriend."

"Her name's Rona" Matt said. "For fuck's sake, you know that."

"Funny name" Cal answered.

"Whatever you reckon, Cal." The worst part was that Matt knew there was a good chance that even after Cal eventually left, he'd raise the whole topic again when Matt got home that night.