"Ian R. MacLeod - Nina" - читать интересную книгу автора (Macleod Ian R)

the olive trees. And in the usual heat, although Max hardly noticed it. He
felt
both fresh and tired. Like he'd been for a swim and fallen asleep without
drowning. Nina was humming beside him, her fingers playing absently with her
blue scrap of sky, shredding it with sharp little tugs. Max watched her,
breathing slowly. Her sweetness was still on his skin. I'm just an old fool in
love, he thought, smiling.

The food came. The bread was fresh baked, still moist inside the crust. Max
ordered more wine to go with the coffee, knowing he could drink what he liked
and never get drank, feeling this way. As the waiter uncorked the cool dark
bottle, Max heard the putter of an approaching scooter. It was Vernon.

"Good night last night, eh, Sir?" Vernon said, dressed in his usual shorts,
his
thighs tensing and untensing still letting the engine rev.

"Not bad," Max conceded, trying not to swallow the dust the tires had kicked
up,
telling himself that Vernon and his kind were no longer a threat.
Nina-with-the-sky-in-her-hair had given him the brush-off. "I've known worse
and
I've known better."

Vernon looked at Nina. "Say, you left a bit earlier than you used to."

Nina smiled and crossed her legs, leaned her chin on the palm of her hand. "Me
and Max, we had things to do."

"That right, Sir?" Vernon's grin grew broader. So did Max's. He was thinking
of
Nina, the way she . . .

"Tell you what, Nina. The lads and I -- and a few friends -- we're having a
party up in the pinewoods. All day, up where it's cool. That's if you don't
mind, Sir."

"Maybe we'll drive there," Max said. "Later."

"Pity of it is, Sir, you'd never get a car up that way. Now Nina, she could
just
hop up on the back here. And off we go. Holding tight on the hairpins, Of
course."

Max was looking at Nina. Nina was looking at Vernon. Vernon gave his scooter
an
extra rev.

"That would be great," Nina said. She jumped quickly up from her chair and
straddled the back of Vernon's scooter. She slid her arms around his waist.