How we MET

Looking forward to a new chapter, Jane couldn't help reflecting on how their love story began

Rain lashed at the window. Lightning flashed. The thunder rumbled a few seconds later.

Jane had turned the comfortable armchair to the window and was watching the storm, tapping her pen on her notepad. She was trying to think of the next line – actually the second line – of a short story, but her thoughts had veered into a creative cul-desac and her mind was stubbornly blank.

‘You should never start a story with a weather report,’ Larry said.

Jane flinched, not realising he had crept up behind her. Battling with her inner visions, she hadn’t heard him come back into the room. She hastily turned her pad over – she didn’t want him reading what she had scribbled down – and sat upright. ‘You nearly gave me a heart attack.’

‘Haven’t they even taught you the basics yet?’

‘It wasn’t actually the start of a story.’ Although that was a lie, because it was. ‘I was just jotting down some ideas.’ If she could call them that.

‘And wishing you were elsewhere, by the look of it. The sun cast its scorching rays on the beach as the gentle breeze… What was the next bit?’

He reached for her notepad, but she quickly slid it away from him.

‘Hardly the local weather for today,’ he said. ‘It’s awful out there.’ He flopped down on the bed.