Like School Holidays

He first saw her three months after his redundancy.

After twenty years of work the not-work world surprised him. It wasn't like Saturday; empty school holiday shops, carparks with solitary cars. He'd forgotten how light and airy daytime streets were. For the first time he slept and dreamed.

He first glimpsed the woman opposite by accident, her naked torso framed in a window. She was maybe twenty, skinny and pale like a schoolgirl.

He knew she could see him. One day he saw her arguing with a man, another day taking delivery of a parcel.

Desperately hiding the football magazines and DVDs he'd bought, he resented Janice bringing complication home. In bed she was stiff with worry, face older. She only talked about money. Masturbating in the afternoon, CVs posted, he'd feel a hollow yearning.

He knew he'd speak to the woman, that they would fuck in the bright afternoons.

'I'm not going back yet,' he'd say jubilantly as another job offer letter burned in the sink.