Ray

Rayna appears with two glasses, he puts them down, sits and pulls at his feet until he is sitting crossed legged opposite me, when he is completely comfortable he slides one drink closer to me.
We chat mindlessy for a while saying nothing that would indicate we had met before, carefuly avoiding the tenacious filth that tarnish our memorys of last summer.
‘What did happen to that grand tour?’ I blurt, interuppting. Nearly adding ‘of ours’ but thinking it unnecessary
Rayna seemed half startled, half disgusted, like some bird had just shat on him. He said nothing for a moment, buying time by letting himself be distracted by a spinning post-card carousel that squealed a loud dizzy protest across the street. Back bent, bottom stuck up in the air a large woman slowly looked up and down its neat rows carefully examining each card like it was something profound presented in an art gallery.
‘Hey?’ he shook his head and smiled weakly in mock confusion. The last of the evening’s sun lit up his face like an over exposed photo washing out all his features, the scar that ran down his left cheek, the two moles on his chin. The brightness made him squint ever so slightly lending him an underserved attentive expression.
‘Oh, well, I didn’t get very far did I?’ perplexed furrows rippled across his brow, as he tried to work out whether this answer pleased me and would be sufficient to close the subject. I said nothing.
The lower the sun got the more he had to squint, until finally his top and bottom eyelashes actually met and he had to look at me through a delicate little cage.
I look away disappointed while Rayna laughs and shakes his head again, dismissing the naïve plans we made, unable to conceive how I could possibly still be dwelling on such a subject.
‘ I fell in love I guess…’ I froze for a second, and turned back to him swallowing slowly.
‘…with this place’ he gazed around.
‘Why here?’
‘Are you mad? Just look around!’
Across the road the post-card carousel now abandoned by its peruser is still spinning slightly, until a boy grabs it and began to wheel it inside the shop it had stood outside,
‘so…’ I begin but my sentence is truncated by the sudden appearance of Ruby, who from nowhere is standing behind Rayna.
Rayna looked at me confused ‘soo?’
she has a finger on her lips and her eyes are wide.
‘so what?’