I went to The Purple Crab and had pizza and saw friends. I had mushrooms and olives on the pizza, but I always have mushrooms and olives on my pizza. I spent a long time talking to Hackett.
“There’s two types of people,” he said. “There are people who are good at talking about themselves and people who are good at listening to people talk about themselves. But only the most wretched are just one or the other. Everyone else changes depending on who they’re with.
“That’s a bit of a generalisation,” said Dominic.
“All the best facts work extremely generally my boy. Have you never noticed that there are some people you want to talk to though they tell you practically nothing about themselves?”
“Yes, but-”
“And there are some people who tell you their life story without you showing even the slightest interest?”
“Yeah, yes, but-”
“Anything else simply isn’t possible, I’m afraid.”
Dominic didn’t try and say anything further, he was looking over to Molly at the other end of the table, she was talking to a girl I didn’t recognise.
