‘Have you read any Flannery O’Connor?’ I shouted.
I had to shout because were at a nightclub and the music was blaring. The good news was that everyone else had taken to the dance floor and I finally had her to myself. I’d been trying all night. She’d turned up with a friend of a friend and all I’d managed to find out about her so far was that she loved books. And she was cute.
‘Have I read any who?’ she screamed back. She had a wonderfully husky voice, though that might have been from the yelling and a long night of cigarettes.
‘Flannery O’Connor!’ I tried to be even louder.
‘Oh yeah,’ she nodded enthusiastically. ‘At Swim Two Birds, that’s a great book.’
I shook my head. ‘No…’
‘And The Third Policeman. That’s hilarious. People turning into bicycles because of the interchange of atoms.’
It may have been the noise or the amount of alcohol consumed, I decided to try something different.
‘Want to dance?’
She beamed back. ‘I do love a man who can dance well.’
‘Oh boy,’ I thought. ‘This is going to go even worse than my attempt at conversation.’