Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

JoMazelis

Yet each evening they ate together. She had an allowance, she explained, for expenses, and this covered all the bills, even food. She bought ready meals from Marks and Spencer and heated them in the oven, decanting them onto the best plates and adding flourishes like side salads and steam-in- the-bag vegetables. There was always wine too, though he professed at first not to like it. She put fresh flowers on the table and lit the candles in the silver candelabra. They started, from desultory beginnings, to have real conversations, though the focus was always weighted towards him, she, having much to hide, used a subtle sleight of hand to keep herself in the shadows.

Only two years before he had been an outstanding athlete; excellingat cricket, rugby, long-distance running, swimming and basketball. Then he’d had his accident while rock climbing. ‘But I was lucky,’ he said, and she thought it would be luckier not to fall at all, though did not say this. ‘I could have been paralysed. I could have been dead. Instead, a year and a half in hospital and I’m as right as rain. Just out of shape. Look!’ He pulled his wallet from his back pocket, took out a newspaper clipping. There he was, a god of a man in Speedo swimming trunks, every muscle toned and lean; pecs, biceps, abs, quads. His face, stripped of the plump cheeks and double chin, was that of a Hollywood film star, a

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