A DEAL

‘You got any tramadol?’ I said.
‘No, I took the last one I had last night but if you want you can go get my prescription from the chemist.’
I hesitated, just a little.
She said, ‘I’ll give you some when you get back.’
She gave me two prescriptions, the other for diazepam.
'Save me going out in the sunlight.'
I phoned her from Picton Street. ‘Twenty minutes, they said, is that alright?’
‘Is it alright with you?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ll go for a coffee.’
Outside the Bristolian I sat reading the sport pages of the Guardian and drinking the coffee.
‘Have a good time,’ said the woman gave me the drugs.
‘Thanks,’ I said, wondering what she might be thinking.
Back at her place she gave me a blister of the tramadol, what I’d thought'd be a deal.