“Do you have a pen?” I ask.
“Hm?” Jess looks up from her novel and coffee.
“Do you have a pen?” She turns to her handbag and starts fossiking around.
“I have a sugar.” She pulls a long, thin sachet of sugar from her bag and places it neatly on the table.
“Why do you have sugar in your handbag?” I ask, pointlessly. She ignores me and keeps searching.
” I have a gingerbread man cutter.” And she removes a metal gingerbread man cutter and puts it on top of the sachet of sugar. This time I don’t bother asking. “I have a space monkey.” Of course she does. She puts a metal badge with black relief and the image of a monkey and cyrillian text next to the gingerbread man cutter and the sachet of sugar. She looks up at me and smiles. She looks proud of her pile of treasures. I smile back at her. She pulls a pen out from her bag and hands it to me, and I write:
‘“Do you have a pen?” I ask.’
