Talking It Over by Julian Barnes

Author:Julian Barnes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction.Contemporary, Humour, Modern
ISBN: 9780307797889
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1991-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Gillian He touched me today. Oh God, don’t say it’s started. Has it started?

I mean, we’ve touched each other before. I’ve taken his arm, ruffled his hair, we’ve hugged, kissed cheeks, the usual between friends. And this was less, less than any of those, and yet much more.

I was at my easel. My hair came loose. I reached out my hand towards the comb I keep on my stool.

‘Don’t move,’ he said, very quietly.

I went on working. I felt him come across. He took the grip out of my hair, the hair fell loose, he combed it back behind my ear, slid the grip into place, clicked it shut, put the comb back on the stool, went and sat down. Just that, no more.

Luckily I was working on a straightforward patch. I just continued automatically for a minute or two. Then he said, ‘I love that comb.’

It’s unfair. Comparisons are unfair, I know. I shouldn’t make them. I never gave that comb of mine a thought. I’ve always used it. One day, soon after we met, Stuart was in my studio and saw it. He said: ‘Your comb’s broken.’ A couple of days later, he gave me a new one. He’d obviously gone to some trouble because it was the same size as the old one, and tortoise-shell too. But I didn’t use it. I kept the old one. It’s as if my fingers have got used to feeling for those missing teeth and know where they are.

Now Oliver just says, ‘I love that comb,’ and I feel lost. Lost and found.

It isn’t fair on Stuart. I say to myself, ‘It isn’t fair on Stuart’, but the words don’t seem to have the slightest effect.

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