rolhirst.co.uk

If a colleague left their pay cheque lying on their desk, and you were bored, and there was nobody else around: would you take a look? Just to check, just to see how much they’re on, just to make sure you’re being paid an equivalent, and not getting short-changed by management after all your long and devoted years of servitude?

Of course you would. You’re no different to me. Unless you’re the sort who’d do it, but wouldn’t ever admit to it. In which case: at least I’m honest.

***

Her name is Karlie. She stands with a soft drink strawed to her mouth like a nutrient drip. She considers The Little Friend because The Secret History rocked her world. She’s going to be disappointed, but she’s used to that.

The nipple on Karlie’s left breast is inverted, and as a result: so is her self-confidence. She won’t ever take off her bra during lovemaking, except in the blackout curtain night (no streetlight gets in Karlie’s bedroom), and only then for a lover she feels entirely at ease with. She rarely feels entirely at ease with anyone.

***

OK then, let’s try this one. If you were single, and on the look-out, and you met a potential partner – whatever your preference – and during that first conversation, when you’re sizing each other up for compatibility and the odds of mutual attraction… if, during that very first conversation, you could see them naked – I’m not talking schoolboy fantasy X-ray specs here, not actual physical nudity, but shorn of all the pretence and show and fakery we wear in public… If you could peek through their dead-bolted shutters and see the shabby secrets they only reveal to their most intimate acquaintances, and maybe not even to them… would you do that?

It’s all right, I know the answer. That doesn’t mean it’s right.

Read the complete story here.