A Little Learning

“You know I met Byron?”“Did you?”“Is that funny?”She dutifully flattened out her wide grin, “No, that’s not funny. Please go on.”“I’d rather not talk about it, actually.”“Clearly.”He realised what she was doing in a red rush. Well then, fine, he thought. If she thought it was such a joke, fine. “The man ruined my grand tour of Europe, did you know that?”“How could I?” she mocked innocence itself with her dovelike simper, “You never talk about it.”He nodded. The bloody cheek. He’d show her. “I met him in Rome, if you must know. I was there for a week that May, and was happened-upon by him, actually, at Trevi Fountain.”“Really?”He raised his eyebrows and nodded curtly, hauling up both hands in exasperation as if tossing the man onto an imaginary screen across their path, “Big as life.”Her look stayed sly, but there was real curiosity in her tone, “So… what happened?”

---Having finally come to terms with their friendship, Alison and Thomas talk to those they trust, and then take a walk to make a proper go of trusting one another.

It goes... a little too well.

(It's self-contained enough that it's ok to start here)