Paper Chains by Nicola Moriarty Read Free Book Online

just didn’t seem to be able to.
     

He was lighting up his cigarette when the two girls sidled up to him. He recognised their faces; they were on his tour bus. They were the ones who were always giggling, usually at something inane. He also recognised the looks on their faces.
    Jeez, one of them is about to hit on me. Maybe both.
    They couldn’t seem to keep the bubbling hysteria out of their voices as they explained what it was that they wanted him to do. Fuck me, calm down, thought Blake as they gushed on about the pure romance of the story they were telling him.
    They held out a slightly crumpled looking envelope and looked up at him with wide, puppy dog eyes, which he assumed must usually work for them. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they had been licking ice-cream cones, seductively circling their tongues around the chocolate peaks, just to complete the image.
    In the end Blake snatched the envelope out of the blonde’s pink tipped fingers and said, ‘Sure, whatever,’ just to get rid of them. When they continued to stand in front of him, bouncing up and down on their toes and waving their perky tits in his face, he sighed and gave them a smile.
    ‘Girls,’ he said.
    ‘Yes,’ they chorused hopefully.
    ‘Fuck off.’
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    ‘Do you remember when the last time was that you cried?’
    Hannah looked up from her menu, startled. Did India know? Was it that obvious? She had cried just that morning, in the shower. And before that, in bed last night. If she thought about it actually, she wasn’t sure when the last time was that she had made it through an entire day without any tears.
    ‘Umm, I’m not sure really. Probably the last time I chopped up an onion,’ Hannah attempted to joke.
    They were sitting at an outdoor table at a café around the corner from the museum. True to her word, India had turned up at the gift shop right on 12.45 pm and announced that she was taking Hannah to lunch. At first Hannah almost hadn’t recognised her – her hair was bright blue today. When asked how she knew what time her lunch break was, India had smiled mysteriously and responded, ‘Ahh, India knows all, my child.’ And then laughed hysterically at herself. Later she explained that she had just called the gift shop and asked Helen, her boss, what time her break was. Not so mystifying really.
    Now India frowned at her. ‘No, cutting up vegetables doesn’t count, Hannah. When was the last time you actually cried? Like really sobbed?’
    ‘I can’t remember,’ Hannah said, a little too quickly.
    ‘Liar,’ India replied casually. ‘I’ll have the chicken and avocado panini, thanks, but can you add mushrooms too, please?’ she addressed the waitress who had materialised by their table.
    Hannah ordered the same because she hadn’t been able to concentrate on the menu with India probing her, and when the waitress left she asked India, ‘Why did you want to know anyway, especially if you’re not going to believe my answer?’
    ‘No reason, just something that’s been on my mind.’
    India leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms out above her. This resulted in her knocking a glass of fizzing lemonade that was balanced on a tray being carried past their table by a waiter. The glass rocked back and forth as the waiter tried to steady it and then toppled from the tray and smashed onto the ground.
    ‘Oh God, sorry!’ India exclaimed as she turned to survey the damage.
    ‘It’s okay,’ said the waiter as he bent to start picking up the shards of glass.
    ‘AGAIN?’ came an angry bellow from the counter inside the café.
    India gasped. ‘Have I just got you into trouble?’ she asked. She swivelled in her chair and squinted inside the café, then called out, ‘No, no, it wasn’t him. It was my fault, I knocked it, when I was stretching – like this, see?’ And she demonstrated with an over-exaggerated stretch.
    The manager inside ignored her and grumbled something that sounded