Red Wine , livre ebook

Austin Macauley Publishers - Lisa Patrick

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

51 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

In this intriguing debut collection of short stories, Lisa Patrick explores some of life's big issues through stories of people who have been unlucky in love. She draws on her experience both in Zimbabwe and the UK to weave these delicious and compelling, if sometimes-poignant, tales in which she explores sex, infidelity, betrayal and more in her deceptively simple style.

Sujets

Short story

Informations

Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	31 mai 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528956796
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0210€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Red Wine
Lisa Patrick
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-05-31
Red Wine About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright Information Acknowledgement The Screaming Woman at the Door The Knickers in the Bathroom Red Wine Forbidden Fruit Sex Tape Night Flight Red Beret Double Blind Date Blue Jeans Airport Taxi Double Whamy My Brother Lewis Silent Witness My Name Is Laura What Am I
About the Author
Lisa Patrick was born in Zimbabwe and relocated to the UK in 1999. She lives and works in the Midlands. This will be her first published work, and she is working on a second collection of short stories.
About the Book
In this intriguing debut collection of short stories, Lisa Patrick explores some of life’s big issues through stories of people who have been unlucky in love. She draws on her experience both in Zimbabwe and the UK to weave these delicious and compelling, if sometimes-poignant, tales in which she explores sex, infidelity, betrayal and more in her deceptively simple style.
Dedication
For my dad, for whom books were life itself.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Lisa Patrick (2019)
The right of Lisa Patrick to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528900386 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528956796 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
My thanks go to Austin Macauley Publishers for giving my book a chance.
The Screaming Woman at the Door
Alice was in her prime. A fresh-faced, nubile young woman just out of high school, 18 years old, embarking on life as an independent young woman in the ‘big bad world’ for the first time in her life. She had started her Nurse training in January of the year, 1980, at one of the biggest hospitals in the country. At the time, the country was newly independent from Britain; there was a lot of hope in the air and the general mood was euphoric.
These were heady times. For the first time in her life, Alice was earning money—yes, real money! She was able to buy herself the latest fashions, have her hair done in the latest styles and enjoy the city’s night life. She and her friends would be out clubbing every week without fail for three nights, i.e. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights unless they were on night shift. In years to come, she would wonder how she and her friends managed to ﬁt in their Nursing studies and work (in those days, Nurse training was apprentice training, which meant working and earning while learning, and this suited Alice just fine!) into this busy social schedule. She concluded that it had probably been down to youth and enthusiasm because with those two things on one’s side, anything was possible.
It was during one of these outings that she met the love of her life. He came over and introduced himself while she was on the dance floor, dancing to the thumping rhythm of the ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ song ‘Let’s groove tonight’ in Luther’s, the trendiest night spot in the city in those days. She was in a music-induced trance. She could never understand why people needed to get drunk to enjoy themselves. For her, the music was enough to make her high. “Hello, I’m Adonis. I think you are beautiful, I like your moves. Please be my wife?” Just like that. She was smitten. He was everything she had ever dreamt of in a man i.e. handsome, intelligent, funny and a doctor to boot! For Alice, a doctor was the ultimate man—the ultimate husband, which is what she was aiming for in time. For the rest of that night, they danced together, smooching to the heady love songs that get played in night clubs the world over. When the club closed in the early hours he got her a taxi like a gentleman and saw her off back to the Nurses Home with a promise to call the following day. At this stage, Alice didn’t really believe that he would call. She thought it was going to be one of those night club encounters which don’t go any further than closing time. It certainly felt too good to be true because Adonis was quite a catch.
She was therefore pleasantly surprised when the following day true to his word Adonis rang and said, “Hi, beautiful. Would you like to take in a movie with me tonight?” Needless to say, she accepted and that evening at the Drive in Cinema they enjoyed a magical time watching a movie from the back of his car and nibbling on popcorn. It’s fair to say that they didn’t see very much of the movie and that most of the popcorn ended up on the floor of the car as they were literally unable to keep their hands off each other in the back of that car. They were inseparable from that point on, spending as much time together as their busy working lives allowed. Adonis sometimes worked in Alice’s hospital as a surgical registrar, and one time when Alice was working on the surgical ward he was on the Grand Round with the consultant as the Senior Registrar, and how they flirted during that round! Alice was walking on air, she was glowing with love. What in modern terms would be termed ‘loved up’. In due course, the time came when he invited her to his apartment to spend the night. It was perfect. He cooked her a meal, his version of spaghetti bolognaise, which to Alice was the most delicious meal she had ever had in her whole life despite the fact that it was slightly burnt and short on tomatoes.
They were just settling into a sated sleep after consummating their relationship for the first time when their bubble was unceremoniously burst by loud banging on the apartment door and the sound of an angry woman screaming, “ADONIS, OPEN THE DOOR. WHO ARE YOU WITH? COME ON, OPEN THE DOOR!” To say that Alice was alarmed by this would be an understatement; she was totally petrified and practically trembling with fear and confusion as she held on to Adonis, who at that moment kissed her and reassured her not to worry as he would deal with the mad woman at the door. As he got up and pulled on his underpants, trousers and T-shirt, Alice had no choice but to do the same and sit nervously at the edge of the bed hugging herself, wondering what would happen next.Meanwhile, the shouting at the door continued and was getting louder and more abusive by the minute. “ADONIS, YOU BASTARD. OPEN THE DOOR. I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE WITH ONE OF YOUR WHORES. I WILL BEAT HER UP REAL GOOD TODAY. BOTH OF YOU lN FACT!”
Alice thought, Hang on a minute, a WHORE? Someone is referring to me as a WHORE?
Adonis, who had desperately been trying to act normal up to this point, shouted back, “YOU LEAVE MY GIRLFRIEND OUT OF THlS. I WILL BEAT YOU UP INSTEAD!”
At this point, all Alice wanted to do was to get out of that apartment. She said, “Adonis, please, who is this woman? I want to go home now, please?”
Adonis went to the door and opened it and as soon as it was open, a tall dark woman rushed into the room and shouted at Alice, “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY FIANCE?”
Adonis used his body to shield Alice from the charging woman who was trying to lunge at her. Luckily for Alice, the woman grabbed Adonis by the shoulders instead of her and they both fell to the floor, wrestling with each other. Alice seized the moment to escape and quickly jumped over the wrestling pair, heading straight for the door. The last she heard of the grappling pair was Adonis saying, “CHIPO, please, I can explain, it’s not what it looks like,” and the woman saying, “We’re getting married next month and you are still doing this to me!” as she started running as fast as her legs would carry her to put as much distance between herself and that situation.
So much for the love of her life, exactly three months after she first met him.
The Knickers in the Bathroom
Brenda met Bruce quite by chance. It was on a nice sunny day while she was walking along the road in town when she stopped at a robot waiting to cross the road. As she stood there, a man in a yellow Renault 18 drove by and sounded his car horn, waving eagerly at her. Brenda wondered who this person was who was so obviously happy to see her and wondered if it was someone she knew. Meanwhile, the man had pulled into a nearby empty parking slot and was gesturing to Brenda to come over. Out of curiosity, Brenda decided to go over and see who this person was.
As she approached, the man got out of the car, leaned against the driver’s door and watched Brenda with obvious relish. When she caught first sight of him, Brenda nearly stopped in her tracks, because in front of her was possibly the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He was quite literally, tall, dark and handsome. His eyes when he looked at her and said, “I had to stop, I couldn’t let you get away from me. I have to have your number. My name is Bruce by the way,” were to die for with lashes long enough to touch his cheeks. He had the cutest of dimpled cheeks and simply the brightest most captivating white toothed smile she had ever seen on a man. Yes, without a doubt, he was a most beautiful specimen of a man.
Instead of saying, “Who are you and why should I give you my number? I don’t know you.” Brenda found herself reciting her name and number to him like a zombie. It was weird. Bruce had driven off with the most dazzling smile and a promise to ring her. ‘Phew, that was bizarre,’ thought Brenda to herself. She stood by the empty car parking space for a while, feeling really puzzled. She had to shake herself o