I looked around: it was better to be with Mia than to wait here naked for her to return. I knew that compromise was not something that Mia understood. No wonder she was single. I scuttled after her.

The umbrella covered our heads but I could feel the rain splashing against my ankles. We walked in silence and I resigned myself to following Mia around until she had decided that my ordeal had lasted long enough. Except that, for her, this wasn’t an ordeal: it was an experiment, and an experience to be savoured.

“I envy you,” she said, “It’s wonderful to be nude in the rain.”

I could have strangled her: if it’s that great then why didn’t you just do it and leave me as I was?

We arrived in the main square. There were a handful of people, apparently tourists, and all holding umbrellas. The rain was too heavy to be outside without one. Some of them looked in our direction and pointed and muttered to each other. I folded my arms across my chest and tried to huddle in on myself.

“Are you cold?” Mia asked me.

“No,” I said, “I just don’t want to be here.”

But that didn’t seem to matter to Mia. Maybe I should have claimed to feel the chill and hope for some sympathy, but it still felt very warm despite the rain.

We kept walking. We appeared to be heading directly towards a young couple looking at a guide book. They noticed us when we were only ten paces away and I could see the surprise in their eyes as a naked woman walking towards them in the rain.

Read the rest of Interview With An Artist, and 11 other ENF stories, in Naked Women in Shorts