After Felix by Lily Morton

Excerpt from After Felix

I’m halfway home when my phone beeps. Digging it out of my pocket, I look down at the text and then give a startled laugh.

Max: Hope you’re home safely. 

A smile plays on my lips as I tap on my phone.

Me: Why wouldn’t I be?

Max: Well, you were walking a bit funny. I was concerned that I’d shagged your coordination out of you.

Me: I think that only happens when people get to your advanced age.

He sends me back a one-fingered emoji, and I laugh.

Me: I cannot even begin to imagine how your number ended up on my phone?

Max: I put it in while you were in the bathroom. Thought it might come in handy.

Me: For what? If I ever happen to need my autobiography written?

Max: I’ve already got the title. ‘Sassy and Shagged Out’. It’ll be a bestseller.

My laugh echoes loudly on the bus, and I attract a few stares.

Me: I don’t need the money. Not now I’ve got a very personalised signed copy of your book. I’m sure I’ll be able to sell it for a fortune. I’ll go and live in the South of France on my yacht surrounded by the glamorous set who’ll bleed me dry and then leave me to bemoan my fate in a seedy piano bar before taking a drunken header into the sea.

Max: Are you sure you aren’t a writer?

Me: How will I know?

Max: Have you got a drinking problem? 

Me: Not this afternoon.

Max: Then you should have my number just in case that drink problem rears its head.

Me: Very civic-minded of you, Journalist Max

After Felix

After Felix

A jaded war correspondent and a carefree younger man. A casual hook-up that doesn’t proceed according to either of their expectations.