‘Are you always so positive?’ he asked.
Amanda slowed down as they came towards the start of the village. ‘Not always. I mean, as I said, my mom died not long ago. That was pretty awful,’ she said, and he heard the pain in her voice.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That is awful.’
‘Okay, where am I going?’ she asked as the car crawled along the road.
‘I think we need to find somewhere to park and then we can have a wander,’ Simon said.
‘Great idea,’ said Amanda, her voice light again.
‘There’s one there.’ Simon pointed ahead.
‘Oh I can’t park there,’ said Amanda.
‘Why not?’ Simon said, turning to look at the empty parking space as they drove past.
‘Because I can’t parallel park when I’m on the right side of the road, let alone the left.’
Simon laughed as Amanda kept driving.
‘Pull over,’ he said, gesturing to the side of the road. ‘I’ll show you how to park.’
Amanda pulled over and turned the car off and turned to him.
‘Sorry, I feel bad for making you come and do this, like I’m annoying you or something.’
Simon frowned. ‘Do you think I’m annoyed?’ he asked.
Amanda paused, and that was enough for him to know her answer.
‘I can be brusque, not because I want to be rude, just because I don’t have great people skills at the moment.’
‘At the moment?’ Amanda was smiling at him, seeming curious more than judgemental, he thought.
‘Some things have happened that haven’t made me love the human race lately.’
Amanda opened the door, got out of the car and walked around the back of the car to the passenger side, while Simon went around the front and slid into the driver’s seat.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asked as he clipped in his seat belt.
‘Not really,’ he answered.
‘That’s cool,’ she said, and he turned on the indicator and drove onto the road and made a U-turn.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
‘I could eat,’ Amanda said.
Simon was surprised at how well the car drove as he looked for a parking spot.
‘Diana has really taken care of this little car. It’s a corker,’ he said.
‘A corker?’ Amanda asked.
‘You know… like it’s good, it goes well, a really solid little car.’
Amanda laughed. ‘A corker, okay – a new phrase learned today.’
