Five women: #4. Sandra (Devon)

I can’t stand her every single habit. I can’t even look her in the eyes now. When she drinks tea she slurps. When she smokes a cigarette she exhales loudly. When she eats she chomps. When she laughs it sounds ridiculous, like a joke laugh, loud and offensive. Like an annoying persons laugh. She never hears me. ‘Sorry?’ she says, about twenty times an hour. She even breathes too loudly. We are always in each others way. When she kisses her boyfriend they both make disgusting kissing noises. I wonder if he realises he’s taken on all her bad habits. But he loves her, and love is blind. Is hate?

(2000, London)