Page 31 of The Way We Are Now

I set off walking quickly, enjoying the pull on my leg muscles. Fliss and I had started running together the previous year. We’d run round Roundhay Park, getting to know each other, talking about everything under the sun, forming a bond. We’d stretch and warm up together, stop when one of us got a stitch, warn the other of treacherous dog crap and cool down, sharing the bottle of water one of us had remembered to bring.

Recalling this now, I quickened my pace to a jog, ignoring the chafing of my flat Jesus sandals on my bare feet; needing to distance myself from the memory of bloody John Dyson and his hot breath on my face, his erection nudging at my leg, his taunting me I was rubbish in bed.

‘Road hog,’ I shouted as a car swerved to avoid me, making me jump into the verge. The car, a black Mini, shot past me at speed, round the corner and out of sight. Any Mini, but particularly a black or yellow Mini, had me instantly thinking of Fliss. Or Theo Mandeville. Jesus, this was ridiculous; I’d spent no more than what added up to a couple of hours in the bloody man’s company. So why did my pulse race at the sight of a black Mini? Pavlov’s dogs, I grinned to myself, remembering a lecture we’d had on the salivating creatures.

I slowed down to a walk around the corner. The black Mini had come to a standstill, the windows wound down against the warm afternoon. Oh, Jesus, not another entitled male, this one thinking he owned the road rather than my body, about to tell me off for him having to swerve. I tutted, feeling another surge of anger towards John Dyson. I should have thumped the man. Kicked him in the balls.

‘You’re going to get yourself killed.’

‘Only by mad drivers like you, speeding and hogging the road…’ I came to a halt at the car, eyebrows raised, ready to do business with the speeding pillock.

‘Oh, Anna! Anna, isn’t it?’

‘Oh, Theo? Theo!’

We spoke as one.

10

‘What the hell are you doing, running down the middle of a country lane in Rothersley? Why aren’t you in college?’

‘And what the hell are you doing, driving like an utter pillock down the middle of a country lane in Rothersley? You could have killed me. And why aren’t you in college?’

We both stared at the other and eventually Theo said, ‘Hang on, let me pull into that verge over there.’ He indicated with his hand, before putting the Mini into gear and driving twenty metres or so ahead. I walked behind the car, my pulse still racing at the shock of seeing him here in Rothersley.

On my territory.

By the time I reached him, he was out of the car, sitting on the grass and drinking from a can of Coke. He offered the can to me as I moved to sit by him and, thirsty from the walk in the warm sunshine, I took it from him, enjoying the fizz as it hit my dry throat.

‘OK,’ he said as I handed the can back to him, ‘you first.’

‘I live here,’ I said simply.

‘What, on this lane?’ He smiled. ‘I didn’t realise you’d finished university. I thought you were just one year ahead of me?’

‘I am. I’m having my year out.’

‘Back home?’ Theo pulled a face.

I was embarrassed, knew I must have appeared awfully unadventurous to Theo Mandeville. I appeared so to myself: living back at home had never been on my wish list. ‘I tried to get London,’ I said quickly, ‘but there was nothing doing.’

‘I get that,’ he replied. ‘I’m trying my hardest to be in London myself next year. Or even abroad. Bloke on my course has got himself New York.’

‘Wow. He’s lucky. I didn’t realise your course encourages a year out too?’ And then, not wanting him to know I knew exactly what he was studying, I hurriedly went on, ‘Sorry, which course are you on?’

‘History.’ He tilted his head back to receive the last drops of Coke before decimating the tin with his fist. ‘I just want to be somewhere I can continue to play squash as much as humanly possible. I was at the British Open last month in Wembley.’

‘You were actually playing there?’ I couldn’t quite keep the awe from my voice.

‘I wish!’ Theo laughed. ‘We went to see Jahangir Khan play in the final.’

I didn’t want to know who we was. I shook my head slightly to rid myself of visions of the gorgeous blonde who’d been on the squash court with him back in Leeds.

‘And it just made me realise even more how much I want to get on the UK circuit and then the world circuit.’

‘Right.’ I pulled a face. ‘Instead, you’re in Rothersley. I don’t even know if there are squash courts round here.’

‘Good ones actually.’ Theo smiled. ‘Can’t believe you don’t know them. On Smith Lane? I’ve played a couple of games there.’