About a Girl Read Online Free PDF

her mouth. Grease shone on her lips. She saw me watching her and ducked her head, looking away.
    And when we’d finished eating she drove us home. We arrived at my flat just as the sun was going down, sending spears of blinding light through the windscreen of the car. She turned off the engine, and we sat in the silence.
    â€˜Thank you,’ I said, ‘for the day.’
    I didn’t want it to end.
    I wanted to invite Flynn inside. But we’d already spent the whole afternoon together. Surely she would consider that enough.
    Flynn turned her head and looked at me. I saw her eyes, looking into mine, and that lovely mouth. I reached out and touched it, and ran my finger along her bottom lip.
    I had the impression that both of us had forgotten to breathe.
    I removed my hand, and Flynn turned back to face the windscreen.
    And all I could do was gather together my wet lump of towel, and my bag, and get out of the car.
    I did not see her face as she drove away.
    Inside the flat, the bowl Flynn had given to the cat stood empty on the floor. The mug she had used sat on the table. That part of the day seemed a lifetime ago.
    I hung my towel on the line outside, and rinsed Flynn’s swimsuit and hung that beside it. Then I sat on the wall that overlooked the town and watched all the lights come on, while something like the ghost of Flynn hovered nearby on the clothesline, just an empty shape, an absence, a memory.
    Much later, after I had come inside and showered the salt from myself, after I’d made myself a cup of instant coffee, after I’d searched for the cat and failed to find it, and when I’d decided that the whole flat contained a dreary aroma of no expectation whatsoever … after all that, someone knocked at the door at the same instant that my mobile rang.
    The call was from my mother.
    â€˜Anna! How are you?’
    â€˜I’m fine. I’m okay … I’m …’
    The knocking at the door continued. I went to open it, the phone pressed to my ear.
    Flynn.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ I told my mother. ‘Someone’s just come to the door. Yes, um … a friend.’ I motioned to Flynn to come in.
    â€˜Well, I won’t keep you too long then,’ my mother said. ‘I’m just ringing to say that I thought Molly and I could drive up to see you in a couple of weeks.’
    Flynn had gone to the living-room window and pressed her forehead to the glass, so that she was joined at the temple to her own reflection in the black mirror of night. The cat had drifted in with her, and was coiling about her legs.
    â€˜Would that be all right?’ my mother persisted, though I doubt I was making any sense.
    â€˜Yes!’ I said, though all I could think about was Flynn. My mouth was so dry I could barely speak.
    After my mother rang off I put down the phone.
    Flynn turned from the window. Her face was as grave as that of a Madonna, or a saint. She bit her lower lip, and without a word took several steps towards me. We sat down on the sofa, side by side. And after a little while, Flynn put her arm around my shoulders, and I leaned against her. We sat like this for a long time.
    We turned to face each other, and Flynn’s mouth found mine. ‘Is it all right to do this?’ she whispered, and I did not answer with words. Then Flynn stood up and held out her hand.
    I took it.
    In the bedroom, we did not switch on the light; enough shone through from the living room for us to see each other.
    We lay down. I put my hand under Flynn’s shirt. Her ribs stood out. I lifted up the shirt and lay with my head on Flynn’s torso, just beneath her breasts. Her heart was pounding as rapidly as my own.
    She was lovely. Soft and strong and tender and surprising. It was like meeting someone for the first time and knowing them instantly. It was like meeting myself.

Chapter Seven
    I LOVED THE salty flavour of her. She’d not had a shower since coming back