Wake by Anna Hope

Author:Anna Hope
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9513-8
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Published: 2014-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

The pub is on the corner, a few doors down from the office: one of those brown-hued workingmen’s pubs where women are rarely seen. Usually she would avoid it, but it’s raining hard, and she has no idea how far Robin can easily walk.

Inside it’s fairly quiet, just a few men, drinking on their own, hunkered down over their pints. She makes sure that she is the first to reach the bar. “I’ll have a gin and orange please, and …” She turns to Robin.

“A pint should do it,” he says, giving a brief nod to the barman.

“Gin and orange and a pint then, please.”

Robin looks across to the rain-spattered windows. “Filthy day.”

The memory of herself, half-naked, drunk, and standing by a window floods Evelyn. “Yes,” she says, drumming her fingers against the wood of the bar. “It is.”

The barman puts their drinks down, and Robin reaches into his pocket.

“No!” She puts her hand on his sleeve, and then pulls it immediately away. “I mean, let me. I wanted to make it up to you, for this afternoon.”

His eyebrows shoot up, but he half-steps away from the bar and opens his hands in mock defeat.

“Got a live one there,” says the barman to Robin, who smiles. Evelyn takes out her purse and pays with a stony glare. They turn with their drinks, and stand, awkward. Which table? Over in the corner is too intimate, by the door too drafty. She makes for an empty table in the middle of a row, slipping into the seat on the side closest to the wall. As Robin settles himself into the chair in front of her, she sees that his leg sticks out slightly: out and to the side.

I often go along to dances, in the evening.

How the hell does he manage then, with that leg?

“So,” she says.

“So.” He looks at her. And there is something different in it. Challenging. It’s the same look that he gave her in the office before.

“Was it dreadful, then?” She sips her drink.

“I’m sorry?” He looks momentarily confused.

“This afternoon.”

“Oh, no, it was fine. Though I should probably pretend it wasn’t.” He smiles, lifting his glass. “This is interesting. I’ve never had a woman buy me a drink before.”

She raises an eyebrow as she lights her cigarette. “I’m sure it tastes the same.”

He makes a great show of holding the liquid to the light. He takes an exploratory sip. “Yes,” he says. “Everything seems to be in order.”

Despite herself, she smiles. She can feel the gin from her own drink hit her blood, and the band around her head ease a merciful notch.

“Listen, I don’t suppose I could have one of those, could I?” He points to her cigarettes.

“Thought you didn’t smoke.”

“Just sometimes, when I’m having a drink. Used to smoke like a chimney, like the rest of you, but I got a bit of poison, you know, bit of gas in the lungs.”

She pushes them across the table toward him.

He lights up, takes a small puff, and

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