17
Sophie Lawson watched on as Alex fired another goal into the back of the net, the computer-generated players celebrating on the screen in front of him. He’d never been good at dealing with negative emotions, and tended to push them to one side. But she was sure his cold exterior might crack on hearing of the death of two of his friends.
‘Are we even going to talk about this?’ she said as the referee’s whistle blew and Alex tapped away at the controller as the game restarted.
‘Talk about what?’
‘What do you think? Tom and Guy.’
‘What’s the point? Talking about them isn’t going to bring them back, is it?’
‘No, but it’s not normal to react like this, is it?’
‘Like what?’
‘Just going and playing a computer game.’
Alex paused the game and looked up at her. ‘Alright, so what is norma
