Hearts and Stripes

Hearts and Stripes

B ELLA IS WEARING

a striped black-and-white T-shirt and a pair of red heart-shaped sunglasses. Beside her, on the bench, a woman with a fast-panting dog is scrolling through her phone. Bella looks like she ought to be strolling in Paris rather than gently shooing an overly eager pigeon from her bag. But here she is.

‘Those sunglasses are fantastic,’ I tell her. ‘Are they new?’

She takes them off and inspects them as though surprised to find that they are on her face at all. ‘They’re from Topshop, I want to say 2015?’

‘Well, they are sublime.’

‘Thank you,’ she says. As she moves up on the bench to make space for me, the fast-panting dog jumps down and pants about my ankles.

His owner smiles. ‘He won’t bite.’

I give the little thing a fuss on the head and its tail wags faster.

His owner stands and says, ‘Paul, come on.’ And he follows at her heels as she heads in the direction of the city.

Bella is watching Paul trot away when I place the letter across her lap.

She picks up Emmeline’s words and smiles. ‘If I’m not your plus one for this, I will never forgive you.’