The Importance of Being a Bachelor by Mike Gayle Read Free Book Online Page A

her mental image through his brain cells. A girl. A girl from school. A bit of a brainbox. Not particularly exciting. May well have teased her about wearing braces. That was it.
    ‘You’re Stephanie Holmes!’
    The last time he had seen Steph Holmes was probably on the day of his final English O level paper. She had been sitting at a desk a few seats in front of him and he remembered being impressed at the speed with which she had opened up the exam paper and started writing. She was easily the smartest girl in the school and was bound for greatness while he was, as the various teachers who wrote his numerous school reports never tired of saying, ‘very intelligent but inherently lazy’.
    ‘It’s got to be at least twenty years,’ said Adam, marvelling how the time had flown.
    ‘Oh, don’t say that! It means we’re both really old and I don’t think I’m ready for that. Look, let’s agree it’s been more like fifteen and we’ll say no more about it.’
    Adam paid for his things and they walked towards the door of the shop. ‘So what have you done with your decade and a half?’
    ‘Where to begin? After school my mum sent me to a private sixth-form college, after that I went to Oxford, after Oxford I went travelling for a while but I had to return early because my mum fell ill – it was just me and her you see – and then after she passed away I ended up moving to the US to work for a bank in New York. Then I moved to a bank in Tokyo, then I moved to another bank in Tokyo, then I decided I had had enough of both Tokyo and banking and moved back to Manchester and bought a house on Wilton Road and started working for a women’s shelter that a friend of mine set up in Stretford.’
    Although she had attempted to gloss over it quickly Adam felt he ought at least to acknowledge the fact of Steph’s mum’s death but then he remembered that they were in the middle of the newsagent’s. This was neither the time nor the place. Instead he went for a much lighter topic. ‘Which number Wilton Road are you?’
    ‘Two eighty-three, why?’
    ‘Two eighty-three! I’m mates with your neighbours Jon and Shelley. They live at two eighty one!’
    ‘Small world.’ Steph smiled.
    ‘I can’t believe you’ve done all that in fifteen years! You must never have stopped.’
    ‘Maybe I should apply for early retirement. Anyway, how about you? What have you been up to since school?’
    ‘Nothing that impressive,’ replied Adam. ‘Left school, did a bit of this and that, moved around for a bit, came back to Manchester, did a bit more of this and that and now I run my own bar on Wilbraham Road. You probably know it, BlueBar?’
    ‘That’s yours? Oh yes, I know it. Never been in it, mind. It all looks just a little bit too trendy for my liking. If I go out at all these days it’s more likely to be for a meal. Still, you must be doing really well to have your own bar. Well done you.’
    There was a long pause, most of which was Adam’s fault because he was engrossed in thoughts about Steph. She clearly wasn’t his old type. And she wore glasses. Adam had only ever been out with one other woman who wore glasses and she hadn’t actually needed them: they were part of a sexy buttoned-up secretary look that had been popular at the time. Those glasses had been a prop, something to be removed in order to elicit the ‘Why Miss Jones, you’re gorgeous’ response whereas Adam could tell that without her glasses, Steph would be struggling to find him. Still, in general at least she fitted the right kind-of-girl label and given that he had nothing better on he was prepared to give her a go if only to keep himself in practice. He checked her left hand. There was no ring in sight. He wondered if he should ask more questions but in the end decided he would be better off just jumping in with both feet.
    ‘Look, I don’t suppose you fancy going for a coffee do you?’
    Steph pulled a face. ‘I’d love to, it’s just