Page 33 of Our Stop

Dammit!She chastised herself.Goddammit!

Tomorrow, she promised herself.I’m going to bloody well make that train tomorrow. Train Guy will just have to wait.

She idly picked up a discarded newspaper on the platform and checked the paper to see if her advert had run, and to her surprise – wasn’t it only twenty-four hours ago she’d sent her submission in? – it had. It calmed her nerves. She didn’t have to be on time tomorrow, or even the day after – as long as she made it to the platform for 7.30 on Thursday, she’d be fine.

If he turned up, of course.

It was Gaby who texted her a photo ofMissed Connectionsthe next day, where Train Guy had written back. Nadia didn’t understand – her adverts before were taking at least a few days to get published. She wondered if there was somebody on the news desk of the paper giving them a helping hand to write to each other faster. The notes were becoming daily, now.

His letter said:

Morning coffee? How about evening drinks? I once overheard you talking about your work, with a colleague, and you, Devastatingly Cute Blonde, are really smart. And your messages back to me make you smart, and a flirt. We could have some fun together, not to mention good chat. What do you think? If I say 7 p.m. on Thursday, at the bar opposite where you got your charity investment, will you say yes? I think this is our stop.

Yes!thought Nadia.Yes, Yes, Yes!She bobbed up and down on the spot, her whole body shaking with excitement.I’m going to meet him!she thought,I am actually going to bloody well bloody meet him!She knew it. She’d known all along this is where it was heading, even when she hadn’t wanted to admit it. She was about to meet a funny, charming, romantic man who had already done all the right things and in the space that she had only just cleared in her heart she felt it: it was going to be brilliant. She pulled up the submission box forMissed Connectionsas soon as she had Wi-Fi signal on her phone, and sent back:

Train Guy: You’re on. 7 p.m., Thursday. I think I know where you mean. And, for what it’s worth, I’m excited. See you then, Train Girl.

20

Nadia

‘The only thing I can think,’ Nadia said, pouring the bottle of Albariño into the three glasses evenly, ‘is that he means The Old Barn Cat. The day I convinced Jared to believe in my non-profit idea, we went to the courtyard there. I just … I don’t understand how this guy knows about it?’

‘Unless the guy … is Jared!’ said Gaby, holding up a glass to signal that they should cheers.

Nadia was horrified. ‘Don’t say that! No!’ Gaby knew Jared because she often worked closely with the board of directors at work. Even joking about a man like him was a step too far. ‘Jared genuinely had tickets to Fyre Festival. Absolutely not.’

Gaby snorted. ‘I can believe that,’ she said, sadly.

‘Gang! Hello? We’re celebrating?’ Emma lifted her glass to knock it lightly against Gaby’s. ‘Here’s to love, lust and romance,’ she said.

‘To love, lust and romance,’ said Gaby, coyly.

Nadia scowled. ‘You two are laughing at me! Don’t laugh at me.’ She took a huge gulp from her glass, refusing to join them in a cheers. Was it just her, or were they mocking her slightly?

Gaby looked away and directly to Nadia. ‘Oh no, sweetie. No, no, no. No we’re not. We’re—’

No. They weren’t mocking her.

Nadia sighed. ‘Oh stop it,’ she cut Gaby off. ‘I’d be laughing too. It’s all so ridiculous.’ She was actually in a playful mood tonight, daring to get excited about her forthcoming date. She couldn’t help but think that everything she’d been through, everything she’d endured and every doubt she’d ever tortured herself with, it was all in service of this.Of courseit had never worked out with anybody else, because she was always supposed to meetthis guy.Right? That was how it worked, wasn’t it? That’s what all the couples she knew said – that in the end, the path was always leading to the one they ended up with. Katherine had once said, ‘You only have to get it right once, Nadia,’ and Nadia understood that now. There was no such thing as a past relationship failing when relationship success was still to play for. When the right man came along, nothing about her past could be a failure. It was all working towards the one big success that would matter. Nadia didn’t believe in soulmates so much as she believed that some people were simply worth making the effort for, and it was about finding the one willing to work as hard as she would to have something special. That one (or one in fifty, if Emma’s maths was to be believed) who truly wanted an equal – that’s what excited Nadia. From everything Train Guy had said – that she was clever and funny and that they’d have good chat together – Nadia could justtellthat he had his head screwed on. That he was clever and funny too. And most of all, kind.

Emma took big gulps of her wine, almost polishing the glass off in one inhale. ‘It’s lovely,’ she said, setting down her glass and already looking for their waiter to order more. ‘All totally lovely.’

‘And just a bit scary,’ supplied Gaby. This was the version of Gaby that Nadia knew best: the slightly cynical, romantically careful one.

‘Well, if I meet him at seven, I’ll expect your phone call at … seven fifteen?’

‘When there will be a horrible emergency.’

‘And I’ll have to come right away.’

‘You’ll beterriblysorry.’

‘Devastated!’

‘And scarper so quick that you’ll forget to leave a number.’

The three of them laughed, articulating a blind date plan they’d all had for years now. In theory, it was easy enough to realize it wasn’t going to work with somebody almost right away, but amongst them only Emma would really announce, fifteen minutes into a date, that it wasn’t going to work and so they had better call it a night already. As a dating columnist she’d had a lot of practice, Nadia supposed, and when she dated like it was her job – because for a while it had actuallybeenher job – it was easier to be businesslike about the whole thing. Meanwhile, Nadia had spent evening upon evening trying not to hurt the man across from her’s feelings, willing herself to find the thing they were compatible on, or in agreement about. That was the downside to being a romantic: by being so committed to seeing the best in her dates she’d had several that should never have happened at all.

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