Winona has joined Will and his co-workers for after work drinks.<\/p>\n
One of them has asked where Winona is working, and gotten more than he bargained for as she describes her ongoing interviewing experiences with the Department of Stodge. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6so then I spent all afternoon taking those bizarre employment-fitness psychological tests. The ones where they ask you if you feel like killing people always, sometimes, or rarely. I assume they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re determining whether I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sufficiently mad to work there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where are you living?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he asks, politely.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, Mt. Vic. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right, I suppose. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the coldest flat we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Everyone in their cluster of 10 people blinks sharply and turns. And the Dreadful Flat Stories begin.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I used to live on Cuba Street in the 90s. In our flat\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the walls didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even reach the ceiling! We got this freaky draft.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Remember at that time all of Mt. Vic was a slum? I was flatting in a house with six others. No insulation. Just heaps of blankets. It was like insulation hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been invented then.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was in Mt. Vic, too. But on the hill. The very top. We caught the southerly full on. Windows used to rattle, even fly open. I caught what they call \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwalking pneumonia.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122”<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had a boyfriend once and – who’s that comedian who says that men are “bears with furniture?” He was a bear and a half. At his man-cave the shower was lined with black plastic. I don’t date men who say they’re living in a warehouse loft anymore.”<\/p>\n
By the laughter, nods, and requests for more drinks, this last raconteur seems to have won. The storyteller is the only other woman in their group. While she was speaking, she slipped out of her hooded black coat, and revealed an amazing head of hair, dyed deep ultramarine. It makes her look unreal, jewel-like. Winona gapes.<\/p>\n
“Ulrika,” she says, holding out a hand that, when Winona takes it, is bony and cold. “I didn’t know Will was married.”<\/p>\n
“Um, we’re partners, not married,” she mumbles, abashed. And doesn’t quite know what to say after that, as Ulrika settles in to be the centre of attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Winona has joined Will and his co-workers for after work drinks. One of them has asked where Winona is working, and gotten more than he bargained for as she describes her ongoing interviewing experiences with the Department of Stodge. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6so then I spent all afternoon taking those bizarre employment-fitness psychological tests. The ones where they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27,12,34,14,15],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shortfic","tag-beer","tag-real-estate","tag-social-mores","tag-will","tag-winona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsawellingtonlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}