steve

he stops for me in his black cab. reading my mind. i'm not going to walk all the way from tower bridge to vauxhall, no sir, not in my heels. and he says as i get on, don't matter if you only have ten pounds but when we get there i'll ask you a question and i say that's ok and so we ride and we say the usual things. i'm from uruguay. the knowledge. london dangerous. suburban living. and when we get home i'm one pound short and he says well i wanted to show you my watercolours and he shows me in his digital camera and then he says i want to paint you, would you like to model. and i say. i'll be honest with you, i've modelled before and would love to, but i don't do nudes and he says that's great cos i don't paint nudes and then we chat about my sabbatical and logistics. and if i want a cab all i have to do is call him so long as i give him 25 minutes' notice and thankyou you're so great. no i won't shake you're hand, i'll kiss your cheek when you get off. let me do my taxi driver thing and, oh you had more than a tenner so what were you worried about. peck on the cheek and walk to the door and calls me back and says helena, and i walk back and say what? when you have your beauty sleep tonight, yeah. yeah? well, just make sure you don't have too much cos you've already got enough, leave some for us ugly guys.