at me and I smiled back briefly as I passed. What a flirt he is, I thought. I knew the type: good looking and knows it. And chases anything in Spandex. Or a see-through Speedo. I fed some coins into the vending machine and pressed the buttons. My cereal bar wiggled a little and went through the motions of dispensing itself but had barely moved by the time the metal robot arm came back and captured it again. I glanced up to look for an assistant and saw the lifeguard coming towards me. The woman in Spandex was nowhere to be seen.
“Having trouble?” he said.
“This happens every time. I don’t get it. F6. I pushed F6. This machine never works properly.”
“You have to let the money drop down fully first. Otherwise it gets confused. You just need to wait a minute before you make your selection,” he said. He smiled and looked me straight in the eye. “Although of course sometimes that’s difficult when you know straight away exactly what it is that you want.”
“That was really corny,” I said, shaking my head.
The lifeguard just laughed and shrugged his shoulders, as if he didn’t really need to try that hard. He waved his hand at a junior member of staff and clicked his fingers, beckoning him over. The young lad appeared beside him, blinking vaguely.
“Keys, Sean,” he said. “Hurry up. Off you go.” Sean glanced up at him and rushed off at a pace.
“So,” said the lifeguard. “What are you doing now? I finish my shift in a minute. Do you fancy a coffee somewhere?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. I need to get home. I’ve got work in the morning.”
“Come off it,” he said. “It’s only four o’clock!”
“Yes, but I’ve got an early start. Really early.”
“Why, what do you do?”
“Radio. I’m a presenter.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m impressed. Which station?”
“Oh God, only local. You know. GCFM. I’m normally on the lunchtime programme, but it’s my first shot at Breakfast tomorrow. I need to be up bright and early.”
“So you are…Lizzie…Lizzie…” he clicked his fingers again, making a good show of searching for my not-so-very famous name.
“… Taylor,” I finished for him.
“That’s it. I know the name. Though I can’t say I’ve ever listened. But I will now. Definitely will now. Ah, I’ve just realised. You’re Elizabeth Taylor. Ha ha. That’s funny.”
“No. It’s not.”
“You’ve heard that before, I suppose?”
“Just a few times,” I sighed.
Sean came back with the keys to the machine. I watched uncomfortably as he fiddled around putting different keys in the lock, trying to find the right one to open it. I could tell that the lifeguard was getting impatient.
“Hurry up Sean, the lady’s waiting,” he said. And then, “Oh, for God’s sake, give them here!” He snatched the bunch of keys from Sean, opened the glass door and released my cereal bar. He handed the keys back to Sean and steered him back in the direction he’d just come from, giving him a little push as he walked away.
“You just can’t get the staff,” he commented tragically. He handed me my snack. “So. I suppose I am just going to have to settle for hearing your voice, then. On the radio. For now, at least.”
“Yes,” I said. “I think you are.”
Outside the rain had stopped. I walked up Coldham’s Lane, my hair still wet and tangled, the late afternoon sun barely warming my numb ears. I’d buy tuna and pasta and salad for dinner, I decided, and a bottle of sparkling water. No wine tonight. And no fags. And only one more night without Larsen. He was away on tour with his band, due back tomorrow. One more night to try and figure out what it was that I actually wanted from him. Or, more to the point, from myself.
I stood at the edge of the road waiting for a gap in the traffic. The dual carriageway was busy; it was the beginning of the rush hour. I shouldn’t really cross there, I knew. There was a pedestrian crossing further up the road near the traffic lights, but that would mean an extra couple of hundred yards’ walk up the road and the same back down again on the other side if I wanted to get off the road and cut through the park. I watched for several moments until the traffic slowed for the lights up ahead and then stepped out, putting a hand up and smiling at the driver of the car in front of