He’d just parked in the car park behind Joe’s Café when a battered Volkswagen pulled up beside him and Nina got out. She watched him take off his helmet.
‘Nice scooter.’
‘Thanks,’ Reuben said. ‘It’s only temporary until I can afford to buy myself a car.’
‘Oh? I’m disappointed.’
‘Why?’
‘I thought you’d be a bit of a rebel and deliberately buy a pink motor scooter to make a point.’
‘What point?’
She shrugged. ‘Whatever point you like.’
‘What if I told you I bought it as a promotion for breast cancer research?’
‘I wouldn’t believe you.’
‘What if I told you I won it in a church raffle?’
She laughed. ‘Now I know you’re bullshitting me.’
Her laugh transformed her face in an instant – it was warm and exotic, like the Mediterranean he imagined was her heritage. He saw her in a long, fl
