"You sound very posh," she said.
We were in a real boozer in Forest Hill. It wasn’t hard to sound posh.
My grip tightened around my pint. A comment like that is usually a full stop. There isn’t really anywhere to go after that.
"Really?" I said, trying not to sound like Boris Johnson.
I had started internet dating again. She had very blue eyes, wore a Star Wars top -in an ironic way- and then she had said that. It was supposed to be a fun pint, not a class war.
She wasn't exactly dropping any H’s herself but, as I said, there isn’t really anywhere to go after that.
On the train back into Central London, I looked at the faces of my fellow passengers. Like me, they looked sad and alone, and I thought, "Why am I here? Why isn’t there a first class?"
The telling thing here is that you felt that there wasn't anywhere to go after that. Actually, there's plenty of places you could have gone, had you felt it in a light and humorous way. But instead it sunk heavy around your shoulders the proverbial albatross. You reneged on your duty to set the poor girl's mind at rest, she obviously felt uncomfortable, out of her league even. When I dated a very posh girl she always liked to show me the holes in her boots. And what was she doing sitting around a brazier with me anyway? Maybe posh girls have more natural grace than posh blokes. On the other hand, maybe you were distracted mulling whether Papa would approve, and good grief look at those shoes.
ReplyDeleteNice analysis but incorrect.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't 'feel uncomfortable' with it, quite the contrary, it was delivered like a yawn or a glance at a watch.
It was a 'You're not what I'm looking for' and there is nowhere to go after that...