Out of Love by Hazel Hayes

Author:Hazel Hayes [Hayes, Hazel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783528974
Publisher: Unbound
Published: 2020-06-10T18:30:00+00:00

Back outside the afternoon swelters on. Lena and I have notions of eating our ice creams in Regent’s Park but instead we have to gobble them down before they melt, making complete messes of ourselves. We stop at a shop on the way and pick up some wet wipes and a cheap bottle of rosé. The store clerk looks bemused as he scans them through.

As we approach the iron gates on the south side of the park, Lena opens the wine and swigs it.

‘So, you speak Italian,’ she says.

‘Not really.’

She hands the bottle to me and I take a sip.

‘How many languages do you speak?’ I ask.

‘Five.’

‘Five!?’

Lena laughs.

‘Which five?’

‘Let’s see,’ she says, ‘English, Swedish, of course, Norwegian – quite similar to Swedish – also French … aaaand … oh yes … Italian.’

I stop dead in my tracks. Lena keeps walking. From the back of her head I can tell that she’s smirking.

‘No,’ I say.

‘Yes,’ she says, without looking back.

I feel my face flush bright pink.

‘Come on,’ she says, over her shoulder.

‘You didn’t say!’

‘You didn’t ask,’ she says, turning around to face me. We stand this way for a while, her grinning, me glaring, then I give up and cover my face with one hand. I am absolutely mortified. Serves me right for trying to show off, I think.

Lena walks coyly towards me, peels my hand from my face, and looks into my eyes, smiling sympathetically. As soon as I smile back she grabs the bottle of wine from my other hand and sets off again, giggling.

‘You’re a fucking troll,’ I shout, hurrying after her. She guffaws.

‘Now that’s racist!’

She takes another swig of wine before I grab the bottle back off her and gulp some down, then we fight over it a while, doubled over laughing and spilling it everywhere.

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