Читать онлайн «After Hello: A gorgeously romantic short story»

Harper

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HarperColl‌insPublishers 2017

Copyright © Mhairi McFarlane 2017

Cover design: Holly MacDonald © HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd 2017

Mhairi McFarlane asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007525010

Ebook Edition © January 2017 ISBN: 9780008245153

Version 2017-10-27

Table of Contents

Then …

It’s quarter past eleven on an unremarkable and stereotypically rainy Friday night in Manchester. Except it is remarkable, and everything beyond the water-flecked windows of my flat, the night-lit Manchester, is made of magic and hope and promise and also I might be a little bit drunk.

There are foil lid boxes of food from the Yang Sing strewn around the coffee table in this poser’s sprawling city flat full of mirrors and string lights, because I didn’t make it as far as the fridge when we stumbled through the door. (My mum would be saying: ‘Don’t touch the egg fried rice now, it’ll be ridden!’) I don’t know who we thought we were fooling by going to a restaurant instead of just heading straight here, to be honest.

It’s our first night together – second, if you’re being picky, although Ben didn’t stay over after the ill-fated previous tumble – and we’re in the stupidly large bed in my flat which doesn’t feel oversized with both of us in it, propped up against each other on the pillows, legs tangled together, listening to the soothing hum of the traffic and the post-pub passers-by outside and enjoying a moment of perfect happiness.