A Kind of Loving Read Online Free PDF Page B

her cheek would be better than anything these other bints could give me.
    Once I get thinking about Ingrid I forget about everything else and I overshoot my stop and have to walk back.
    Walking down Illingworth Street I begin to feel pretty good about everything. I've got a good suit on and I'm clean and spruced up and my heels ringing on the pavement seem to give me more confidence, somehow. I know it'll be the interval at the dance so I call in at the Ram's Head, this pub up the street, for an odd one to put me right on top and a looksee if any of the lads are about. I go into the lounge. It's jam-packed with the interval trade from the Gala Rooms and I can see across the bar into the smoke room where the band boys are having a quick one in them nifty fawn jackets they wear with maroon bow ties. I scramble for a glass of bitter and when I look round who should I see but Willy Lomas waving to me from a corner table. I go over an' this lad he's with - Harry Something-or-other, his name is - shoves up and makes room for me to sit down. They haven't got their coats on and I ask them if they've been in the dance.
    They both nod, and Willy says, 'Packed out. Everybody dancin' on your feet.' He's looking about as cheerful as he always does. I think it's his face that does it. It's long and white, like a clown's, and his hair's jet black and slicked back without a parting, smooth and shiny as your shoe toecap. He lifts his leg up and shows me a torn turn-up.
    'Put me leg out in a quickstep,' he says. 'Next thing I know some tart has her heel in me trouser bottom. Nearly went arse over tip.'
    'Any interestin' talent?'I say.
    'Usual crowd,' Harry says, which tells me nothing that I want to know. Anyway, I don't think they know Ingrid.
    'I rather fancy that singin' bit they've got,' Willy says.
    'A bit out o' your class in't she, Willy?' Harry says, 'It'd cost you a fortune to keep her in stockings.'
    ' Well I can fancy it free, can't I?' Willy says.
    'Anyway, she's married,' I say.
    'How d'ye know?' Willy says.
    'Because she wears a wedding ring, clot, that's how.'
    'I sometimes think the married 'uns are the best in the long run,' Harry says. 'Least, they know what you're after and you don't have to break 'em in.'
    'I don't want any fifteen-stone husband breathing down my neck,' Willy says. 'Give me the single 'uns every time. What I like is a nice willin' little virgin who's grateful to you for showing her how nice it is.'
    He's bragging now and I grin at Harry as he gives me a sly wink.
    'Trouble is', Willy says when he's had a pull at his pint, 'every bird I take a fancy to's either wed or courtin'. You know, I picked one up at the Trocadero the other week. Smashin' bit she was and she had that look about - y'know, no limit for the price of a bag offish an' chips. She let me walk her to Green- ford - two mile - an' then when I tried to steer her into a shop doorway to do a spot o' neckin' and fix up for another time, what d'you think she said? "Me fiancy wouldn't like it," she said. Her fiancy! Four mile I walked that night, for damn all!'
    I laugh. I have a theory about Willy. I think he'll end up married to a tart six-foot tall and as plain as the side of a ware house and be bossed about for the rest of his life.
    'Aye, women are murder,' Harry says, so it looks like he's got troubles too. 'I wa' goin' steady with a bint some time back. Twelve month I'd been courtin' her an' we were even thinking about getting engaged. She was allus on about it. " When're we goin' to get engaged, 'Any?" she says. Allus on about it.'
    'Oh, I've never thought about that,' Willy says, and I have a quiet grin thinking about this six-foot tart who's about some where waiting for him.
    ' Well, I didn't mind,' Harry says.' She wore me down like. I wa' ready to give in for a bit o' peace an' quiet. Then one week-end she goes over to stay with a cousin of hers in Warrington. Next thing I know she's over there every week-end an' I'm ditched for a bloody