I ignored him after that, feeling a smart of irritation each time I saw him in the union or a lecture hall. He’d always smile. Sometimes I felt I was the mouse to his cat.
Then came the massacre. We all watched in horror as the Chinese tanks fired on the protesters, mostly young students. Hundreds died. The world condemned the brutality but China’s leaders remained unrepentant.
About a week afterwards Tom came up to me in the corridor.
‘Come to gloat?’ I said.
‘I won the bet.’
‘I never accepted your stupid bet.’
He sighed, stuck his hands into his pockets, as if I was boring him.
I moved to walk around him and he stood in my way. My face grew warm.
‘What are you scared of?’ he said.
‘I’m not scared.’
‘You seeing someone?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘So?’
‘Why would I want to go out with you? We don’t agree on anything, I don’t even-’
‘What?’ I wished he’d wipe the smirk off his face.
Like you, I was going to say but that felt unkind.
‘It’s just a drink,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Might be fun,’ he said. ‘Tonight, the Lass o’ Gowrie at eight.’ He walked off without waiting for an answer.
I turned up feeling intensely awkward. We argued all evening.
I had a ball.
Lori in the Ori-ent
What’s in a Name?
Posted on 15 October 2013 by Lori
Hello, and welcome to my new blog.
A bit of background – I’m a Brit, from Manchester, photography graduate (yay, Glasgow!), taking a few months out with my trusty camera to see something of this amazing planet and report back. In my former life I never made it beyond Tenerife so for me writing this from a guesthouse in Thailand is beyond cool.
(Hi Mum *waves* still alive. Sorry I’ve not replied to your texts – bit of hassle sorting phones out.)
Lori in the Or-ient will be my working title. I was going to be Lori on the Lam but someone got there first, heads up to www.manonthelam.com. Then I came up with Lori’s Big Adventure but that’s been well and truly snaffled by many bloggers. So we are where we are. In my case Thailand. Whoop-de-doo!
My given name is Lorelei. It’s not very common, though Marvel comic aficionados and the fans of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes will know it. The name means either ‘alluring rock’ or ‘murmuring rock’ or ‘alluring temptress’. There is an actual rock called the Lorelei on the Rhine river in Germany. The story goes that it’s inhabited by a siren whose singing lures mariners to their death. In my defence I’d like to point out that
a) No one asked me
b) I’m really not the alluring type
