‘Pull Up To The Bumper’ by Grace Jones （1981）
‘Mr Bradshaw, you dark horse. I had you down as sea shanties.’
‘I love this. Definitely one of my top five songs about driving.’
‘Quite bad driving.’
‘There’s no justification for getting that close, even in traffic.’
‘Though, if you read between the lines, it’s not really about driving.’
‘No?’
‘It’s about parking.’
‘It’s the parking song.’
‘Reversing around a corner.’
‘It’s the big shop car-park song.’
‘Exactly. Even so, I’m surprised to find it on here.’
‘Actually, I think it’s Natasha’s.’
‘It’s not going to make you cry, is it? Because this is a really weird song to cry to.’
‘No, it’s on a playlist called Sunday Afternoon Barbecue Vibes or something.’
‘Yes, that’s very much what Grace Jones was going for, geography teacher’s back garden, bank-holiday Monday.’
They walked a little further.
‘We don’t have to use this as a catalyst to talk about sex if you don’t want to.’
‘Good, because my memory’s not that great.’ They walked on.
‘But it’s been a while?’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
‘How long?’
‘You say first.’
‘No, you go.’
‘Okay,’ she said, ‘on three we’ll hold up fingers.’
‘Okay. One … two … three and—’
Michael held up two fingers, Marnie four.
‘Only two?’ she said. ‘You nympho!’
‘Out of control.’
‘I really miss it.’
‘Christ, me too.’ They walked a little further.
‘But tell me – what are you like as a driver, Michael?’
‘Is it time for a new song?’
‘I mean do you keep two cars’ distance or …?’
‘I think it’s very hard to assess yourself.’
‘But if you had to.’
‘I think people I’ve driven with would say I’m responsive to the road, but not too cautious.’
‘Hm. Feel a bit queasy now. Put the brown noise back on.’
‘It’s fading out. Shall we have something else?’
‘Okay. This one’s mine. Let’s see. Spin the wheel!’