FISH TANK & ALICE

Celia and Sarah shared a flat in London in the 60s. Alice and Polly also shared a flat, just minutes from where their mothers had lived 50 years earlier. It was Polly who introduced Alice to Paul. Alice suggested that she and Paul go out for a drink, they were neighbours after all. She was lying, they actually lived at opposite ends of the city. Paul emailed the day after the date to ask her out again. Alice played it cool. She was off to Palavas-les-Flots on holiday. Concerned that she’d played it too cool she bought him a present, a ‘snow globe’ of gaudy fish in a tiny plastic tank. Through the week her confidence dwindled, he was a product designer, a cheap seaside chotchke wasn’t going to cut it. So she gave him a bottle of wine. Alice held onto the fish tank as a reminder of when they were first dating. She recently confessed to Paul that she’d bought it for him. Paul says no matter how pretentious he is with his new house and fancy furniture he will always have to accommodate the fish tank.

24 Feb 2013