Charlotte Runcie

“But how is that different from any other relationship that doesn’t work out?” Alex stared down the road in the direction the drag queens had gone, in the direction of the Sainsbury’s where Hayley had bought the gin. The lights from the pub on the corner were brightening as the night deepened. “Every break-up happens because the other person gradually realises that you were awful all along. The only difference is that she discovered I’m awful all at once, on day two.” That reminded me of something my friend Zara had said to me once, when we were renting a flat together when I first moved to London. It was a tiny, damp, third-floor ex-LA flat in Leyton which we rented from an Austrian woman. When I told Zara I’d got the job at the paper, she’d said, “With every job I’ve ever had, if I’d known beforehand exactly what that job entailed, I never would have taken it. But still, congratulations.”
― Charlotte Runcie, Bring the House Down: A Novel