Musclebound Read Online Free PDF Page B

and her tarty underwear. And it wasn’t so much that the rent man actually decked me – no – it was him looking at me and knowing he could. A year ago he would of looked at me and said to hisself,‘Uh-oh, trouble, back off.’ This year he looked at me and said to hisself, ‘Ho-ho, easy meat. I can have this.’ And he did.
    So I didn’t want clean beautiful Harsh looking at me and seeing what the rent man saw.
    But I didn’t have no other choice. And besides, I told myself as I crossed the road, he hadn’t seen the old bird drop me a coin, and he hadn’t seen me pick it up. So I walked as tall as I could and I called out his name.
    ‘Harsh!’ I said.
    He spun round, easy and graceful, on the balls of his feet. ‘Eva,’ he said. ‘Well, well, well.’
    ‘Harsh,’ I said, ‘you got to help me.’
    ‘Do I?’ he asked.
    It had come out all wrong. Why does it
always
come out wrong?
    ‘This bloke yesterday,’ I said.
    ‘Excuse me?’ said Harsh.
    ‘Yeah. He knew he could clobber me.’
    ‘Eva,’ Harsh said. ‘Give me some space. Let go of my coat.’
    ‘And he clobbered me. He did. But it’s ‘cos he
knew
he could.’
    ‘Eva,’ Harsh said. ‘This may mean a lot to you, but, so far, it means very little to me. Let go of me and explain yourself clearly.’
    ‘I got to get back.’
    ‘Get back where?’
    ‘Where I was,’ I said. ‘Fit. Hard.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Harsh. ‘I see.’
    Harsh saw. I felt like bawling my eyes out.
    ‘I can pay you,’ I said, because I didn’t want to bawl.
    ‘Where did you get all that money?’ Harsh said. ‘Don’t brandish it out here where everyone can see.’
    I stuffed fistfuls of wedge back in my pockets. I said, ‘I wanted to show you – so’s you’d believe.’
    ‘I believe you,’ Harsh said. ‘You don’t have to wave it around. Where did you get it?’
    ‘It’s mine,’ I said.
    ‘All right, don’t shout.’
    ‘So I’ll pay you,’ I said. ‘And you’ll get me fit again.’
    ‘You will not pay me,’ Harsh said. ‘You do not need money to be fit. You need the will to do the work. You need the will to stop drinking.’
    ‘I ain’t drinking.’
    ‘I can smell it.’
    ‘I gave it up.’
    ‘Then you need to use your toothbrush. How much money will that cost you?’
    ‘What’re you ravin’ on about?’ I shouted. I was so let down. ‘Are you blind or what? I want to be the London Lassassin again. I can pay. And you’re going on about a fuckin’ stupid toothbrush.’
    ‘It is a journey,’ Harsh said. ‘And in your case it should begin with a toothbrush.’
    He turned away and left me standing. Can you believe it? When I opened my eyes again, he was gone. Gone. He left me standing with all that wedge balled up in me pockets. Me! A squillionaire.
    I could of run after him and throttled him.
    ‘I’ll give you a toothbrush,’ I said. ‘I’ll give you a toothbrush so hard it’ll come out the other end.’
    I mean, I’m talking quads, pecs, deltoid, trapezius – and he’s talking toothbrush. That’s way past dumb. I thought Harsh understood, I really thought he
knew
, but he told me squat, treated me like a tadpole.
    And then two geezers walked up and one of them swatted me on the shoulder. I whisked round.
    ‘Oi,’ the black-haired geezer said. ‘Oi, Eva, don’t thump me.’
    It was Flying Phil. I said, ‘What you done to your hair?’ He used to streak it blond. Now it was blue-black and spiky.
    ‘Ain’tcha heard?’ he said. ‘Dad’s retired. I’ve gone solo. I’m Firefly Phil, the Giant Killer now. What you doing shouting the odds out here? Mr Deeds’ll go ape. He told you what he’d do if he caught you within a mile of the gym.’
    ‘Fuck Mr Deeds,’ I said. ‘And fuck you too.’ I was too upset about Harsh to talk to a moron like Phil.
    ‘Know what?’ Phil said. ‘You’re turning into one of those bag women.’
    ‘Fuck off.’
    ‘Yeah, next you’ll be pushing a trolley and collecting carrier bags.