Her Name was Lola
Part 6By Steve Finbow
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Click here to read from Part 1
He went to Manchester for two weeks to work on a play. He’d agreed to be the writer on a project scheduled for September. He missed her but kept himself from texting and called her once. They agreed that their phone calls were not worth the effort – he was laconic and she sounded like she had just woken up and when they hung up they could think of things they wanted to say, subjects to talk about, but on the phone there were moments of silence that were uncomfortable.
On his return, they met and he realised she would only be in the country for another month and he told her he wanted to see her as often as possible. She said she would like that too but she was having problems with one of her flatmates and may have to move out. She was also sick and had been to the hospital for tests. She hadn’t had her period for six months and she made him laugh when she told him a story that had something to do with menstruation and the Red Sea and crimson tsunamis and surfing. He said he would go to the hospital with her if she wanted but she said her boyfriend would be taking her and so he left it at that but texted her to see if everything was OK and it was and he was happy.
She was rehearsing for a new play – the end of year production – Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, she was playing Ase and the Buttonmoulder. She told him her mother would be visiting to see the play and to take her back to the USA and she wanted him to meet her and he joked about which accent he should use his Cockney or his university accent. She said her mother would love him and had asked Lola if there was a romance between them and he waited for her to say whether or not this was true and she didn’t. He asked if her boyfriend would be there and she said he would and he resolved to be friendly but knew he would not.
Three weeks before she was due to leave he asked her if she would like to go away with him for the weekend and she said she would and then she told him she was going away for Easter to France with her boyfriend and asked if he would like her to bring him something back and he said he would like foie gras or cheese. He bought her a copy of Bret Easton Ellis’s Glamorama for the trip. She wasn’t leaving until the Saturday and so on Good Friday they met for lunch in a pub on Abbey Road and he told her he hated the Beatles and John Lennon more so and he told John Lennon jokes and she didn’t find them funny so he changed the subject and told her he used to come to this pub with his first wife when the Saatchi Gallery was on Boundary Road and she wasn’t interested and after two hours the conversation became difficult and she apologised but she wasn’t feeling well – tonsillitis – and said she thought she should go home and sleep and on the way he bought her an Easter egg and he kissed her goodbye and she said, ‘Have fun,’ and he said, ‘You, too’ and he didn’t mean it.
He went for a walk on the Tuesday morning and checked his messages and there was one from Lola saying:
‘Hi. It’s Lola. I’m back. My phone is out of action and I won’t get it back until Thursday. I’m flat hunting today but would love to see you. Are we still on for Chinese? Or Karaoke? I’ll email you or try to call you tomorrow from school. And I’m rambling and have to go. Miss you. Lots of love.’
And when he got home she had emailed him and said she wanted to meet that night and he emailed back, ‘How about the New Inn at 6:30?’ and she emailed back and it read ‘Perfect.’
He got to the pub 30 minutes early and read the short story ‘Puppy’ from A Multitude of Sins. She arrived and was wet and told him a story about her mother finding out she had been to France when she was supposed to be sick and her mother would check her passport and it had been stamped and that she had lied to her mother about losing her passport and her mother, though suspicious, had said she would arrange to get her a new one and not to worry just concentrate on the play. He told her about his plans for the weekend coming. They would go to Rye. He wanted to stay in an apartment he used occasionally at weekends for writing but it was booked. The B&Bs looked shabby, so was it OK if they stayed in a hotel – twin beds of course – he didn’t snore but she said she talked in her sleep and he said that he felt creepy and double-checked she still wanted to go and was it alright with her boyfriend and she said yes she had told him and he was fine. Later, he asked her again if she was sure and she pursed her lips and said, ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Then they talked about their past and the troubles they had with their parents and he wrote down some things she said that were funny but the next morning he wouldn't be able to read his own handwriting and would forget what she had said. As they left, he said:
‘I love you.’ And quickly qualified it by adding, ‘But not in that way. In another way,’ and wasn’t sure what he meant and she didn’t say anything except for,
‘Sweet dreams.’He got home wet through from the rain, fell asleep on the sofa and woke at 3am with a stiff neck and cramp in his left thigh.
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Click here for Steve Finbow's bio and a list of works published.
© 2005 Me Three
