Extract from A Spanish Lover

By Joanna Trollope. Published by BCA

Have you a boyfriend?
‘No,’ said Frances, ‘if it’s any of your business.’
He had laughed.  He had recovered his equilibrium once and wasn’t going to lose it again in a hurry, so he refrained from paying Frances fulsome compliments like how a beautiful woman like you should never, etc. etc. Just as well, Frances thought now, spreading butter and jam on her papery Spanish roll, or I might really have flipped.  People never seem to use their imaginations, when dealing with those of us who aren’t a part of a couple, they never seem to display a quarter of the sensitivity when dealing with you that they simply demand when you are dealing with them. You get used to this in a way, just as you get used to singleness and to not being essential to someone and to both the pleasure and the pains of not having someone else to take into account – you get used to it, but you still hate being asked about it. It makes you think about it all over again, it makes you start to wonder….