Vince and Joy Read Online Free PDF Page B

now?’
    ‘Yeah. Come on.’
    ‘Cool. OK. Right.’
    Two minutes later Vince was leaving the Nelson’s Arms and walking into a warm and balmy evening of complete and utter mystery with the most beautiful woman he’d ever been alone with in his life.
    They stood on the pavement outside the pub, next to a large weather-beaten sign that said, ‘Welcome to Seavue Holiday Home Park.’ It creaked a little as a gentle, salty breeze passed over them.
    ‘Christ. What a nightmare!’ said Joy
    Vince laughed. ‘I’m really sorry about that, in there. Chris can be a bit… overwhelming sometimes.’
    ‘God, don’t be sorry! It’s
him
I feel sorry for. Him and your mum. They’re stuck with them now’
    ‘Oh, don’t worry about Chris. He’ll find a way of getting rid of them when he gets fed up. He’s clever like that.’
    There was a small dog tied up outside the pub, white with brown patches and disproportionately short legs. Its owner had left it with some water in a Tupperware box. The dog looked up at them appealingly, and they both crouched down in unison to say hello. He strained enthusiastically at his lead to greet them.
    ‘Hello,’ said Joy, scratching his neck.
    ‘You’re a friendly little bugger, aren’t you?’ said Vince, rubbing the dog’s haunches.
    The little dog contorted itself in raptures, and Vince looked up to see Joy smiling at him.
    ‘I like people who like dogs,’ she said.
    ‘Do you?’
    ‘Uh-huh. Never trust a man who doesn’t like dogs, that’s my motto.’
    ‘Right,’ said Vince, dropping his gaze. He stared at Joy’s hand where it rested on the dog’s ruff. It was long and thin with raised blue veins that flowed from her wrist to her knuckles like icy tributaries. She wore a silver ring on her index finger, in the shape of a furled dragon. A thought landed in his head as he stared at the ring, one so overwhelming that he had to clench his jaw tightly to stop him speaking it out loud.
    Do you believe in love at first sight?
    ‘So,’ he said, getting to his feet, blood rushing to his head, ‘we’ve been granted our freedom. What shall we do with it?’
    Joy gave the little dog one last pat and stood up. Her knees clicked audibly as she straightened her legs. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘you’re Mr Hunstanton – you decide.’
    ‘Right.’ Vince surveyed the road from left to right. He had no idea what to suggest. He’d never had to decide what to do in Hunstanton before. He always just did what his mum and Chris were doing. What would a girl like Joy want to do, anyway? he wondered. She looked like she read Russian novels and listened to difficult music. She probably spoke fluent French and knew how to eat oysters. He mentally scrabbled through all the possible options, trying to find something,
anything,
with even the slightest whiff of culture or class about it.
    ‘There’s a cinema down at the seafront,’ he said eventually. We could see what’s showing?’
    ‘Tell you what,’ said Joy, ‘let’s just go and find a nice pub and get pissed, shall we?’
    Vince turned and smiled at her with relief. And then they started walking.

Four
     
    Joy hadn’t had a boyfriend for almost two years. She hadn’t felt a hand in her hand, lips against her skin, hair against her cheek. The only men she’d had any contact with since she was sixteen years old were teachers, doctors and counsellors. She couldn’t remember what men smelled like. She was sure the professionals she’d dealt with these past months had wives who thought they smelled delicious, who loved nothing more than to breathe in their heady, unique scent, but all she remembered of the whole experience was words – no smells, no noises, no feelings – just endless words.
    Her last contact with a real man hadn’t even been with a real man. It had been with Kieran Saunders, an acne-stricken seventeen-year-old from Dagenham she’d met at a bus stop when she was fourteen. He’d strolled past, in a fringed leather