What became of us

whoever gave it could take it back. It’s not the same as a qualification.’
    ‘This is all getting a bit semantic for me,’ he said, taking the bottle from the mid-point where she had replaced it and having a swig. ‘You have to remember that I’m a derivatives trader this evening and I don’t understand about existential dilemmas.’
    ‘Do you think what I’ve got is an existential dilemma?’ Annie asked enthusiastically. It was always a relief to put a name to these vague insecurities. It made you feel less neurotic.
    ‘Would you like my diagnosis?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said.
    ‘I think you’re a bit pissed off with life at the moment. Not surprising after what happened to Penny.’
    She waited expectantly.
    ‘That’s it?’ she said after a second or two.
    ‘That’s it.’
    ‘I show you my soul, and you tell me I’m pissed
    off?’
    ‘Yup. I could give you the Latin, of course.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Pissedofficus minor.’ Another short burst of laughter.
    Even though it was a dreadful joke, she found herself joining in, then she leaned over and punched him hard on the arm.
    ‘Ow!’
    ‘You do know that I’m going to have to use that in the show. You won’t mind, will you?’ she asked.
    ‘Delighted,’ he said.
    ‘Was that an example of your bedside manner, then?’ she asked him.
    ‘Now, that would be telling,’ he said.
    The floodlights suddenly went out.
    Neither of them said anything for a few moments as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. The surfaces of the buildings began to look softer and more like stone than cardboard.
    ‘Do you remember how if you weren’t invited to anything on Saturday night, you’d wander round the streets listening, and soon enough you’d hear strains of “Suffragette City” or “Brown Sugar”, and then all you’d have to do was follow your ears and crash the party?’ Annie asked, wishing that she could hear some music now.
    The city was very quiet tonight. She didn’t want to go back to the hotel, but without floodlights on it was as if they no longer had an excuse to sit and natter into the night.
    ‘So that’s why you were at every party I ever went to, even though you didn’t know any of my friends?’ Ian said.
    ‘Was I? Saturday night wasn’t all right unless you had at least three parties to go to,’ Annie said, then suddenly jumped up. ‘Hey, didn’t there used to be a disco in the back of the shopping centre?’
    ‘Did there?’
    ‘It was a townie kind of place. More disco than pogo. Students weren’t very welcome. I seem to remember twirling manically to “I Will Survive”. Do you remember the Top of the Pops video of it? That girl on roller skates twirling and twirling. It was the anthem for my generation of women. In fact, we should have had it tonight after the Elgar...’ she stopped for a moment, suddenly aware of how incredibly inappropriate that would have been.
    ‘God, the number of times I’ve twirled alone at the end of parties,’ she continued sadly.
    ‘Come on, let’s see if Tramps or Scamps or whatever it was called is still there.’
    She jumped up, grabbed his arm and attempted to drag him down the steps.
    ‘I never went there,’ he said, refusing to budge.
    ‘No, you wouldn’t have done,’ she replied, tugging at him, insistently.
    ‘Why not?’ he enquired, still sitting firm.
    ‘It was only gay men, really, who thought they were being ironic and could dance.’
    ‘I’m not a bad dancer,’ he defended himself.
    ‘Really?’ Her tone said: tell me another.
    ‘I go to Latin American classes with Zoe.’
    ‘Zoe?’
    ‘My daughter.’
    ‘You go to dance classes with your teenage daughter?’
    For a moment she couldn’t work out whether that was pathetic or admirable. She hadn’t had a father when she was a teenager, but if she had, she was almost certain that she would not have wanted to go to dance classes with him.
    She gave up trying to pull Ian off the steps and sat down again.
    ‘Her idea,’ he said. ‘We didn’t seem to be seeing much of each other. We both like dancing. Just seemed like a sensible plan,’ he said.
    ‘You don’t have to explain it,’ Annie told him grumpily.
    The moment she thought she had a take on him, he would say something that made her think that she had got him all wrong.
    ‘Can you dance?’ he asked gently.
    ‘Not really,’ she admitted: ‘to be honest I’d love to be able to dance properly, but it’s like careers I never put my mind to it.