The Girls Beneath. Ross Armstrong

      ‘So… how are you doing?’ Anita says

      ‘Well… my stamina for working on foot is good.’

      ‘Ha.’ She laughs her laugh.

      ‘Don’t laugh.’

      ‘I wasn’t laughing at you. Have you lost your sense of humour?’

      ‘Yes,’ I say. ‘Can’t find it anywhere. Also, I’ve become impulsive. Also, you’re subtly slurring, which indicates you might soon get a migraine. I read a new study. You should take magnesium tablets.’

      ‘Seriously, none of this sounds at all like you,’ she says.

      ‘So you’ve said. I should tell you, a thing happened. There was an accident, a bad one. It happened to me. Don’t you read the paper?’

      ‘No. What accident?’ she says.

      I breathe. Quick ones. Three in and three out.

      ‘I won’t bother you with it. I needed to talk. Now I have.’

      ‘Are you okay? You seem so different.’

      ‘People change. Goodbye,’ I say.

      ‘No, I want to see you. Please. I’m worried. I still… I do love… ’

      ‘I don’t want to hear that. And no, I won’t want to see you.’

      ‘I’m going to come round. Stay there. I’m coming round now.’

      ‘Please don’t. That might make me very angry. People change. Good luck.’