Page 42 of Our Stop

Nadia raised an eyebrow. ‘My robots have more original pick-up lines than that.’

‘I told you, we’re going old school tonight.’

‘The oldies are the goodies?’

‘The goodies are the goodies,’ he repeated, which didn’t quite make sense, but the way he said it made Nadia nervous. ‘So, same again?’ he pressed, nodding his head towards her empty glass. Nadia shrugged.

‘Sure,’ she said. She surprised herself with her answer.

When the barman delivered two more glasses of wine, he said: ‘Your buddy opened a tab on his card. Do you want me to put these on there? Or do you want to take his card for him and give me a new one, or …?’

Nadia could feel Eddie’s eyes on her. ‘No, no,’ she said, tempting as it was to order a bottle of whatever was most expensive and charge it to the man who had stood her up. She didn’t even know his name! ‘Ah,’ she added. ‘Actually, maybe I could take it for him?’

The barman shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said. He reached back and got the card. Nadia figured at least she could see what name was embossed on it. She took it off the barman. It said D E WEISSMAN – not a name that meant anything to her.

Eddie whipped out his bank card in the time it took Nadia to reach under the bench for her bag. ‘Allow me,’ he said. ‘We’ll start a tab on this one,’ he said to the barman.

Nadia slipped D E Weissman’s card into her bag.

‘Thank you,’ Nadia said, knowing full well she shouldn’t have another drink without eating something – but doing it anyway. She was here, she looked good, and a funny man was interested in her. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to wait with him until his friend came? A little flirting was making her feel good – like she wasn’t wholly repulsive to all of mankind. Yes. She’d stay for half an hour, just for one more, if only to remind herself that she was fine.

Okay, she was tricking herself into thinking she was fine, but genuine okayness was sure to follow, wasn’t it?

‘Cheers,’ said Eddie, motioning at her with his glass, and Nadia raised hers in the air to meet it.

‘Here’s to doing it the old-fashioned way,’ she said, sounding a lot more confident than she felt.

She really wasn’t going to stay long.

29

Nadia

Nadia’s alarm went off at 6 a.m. She’d set her phone to go off automatically every day, since she kept getting drunk the night before and forgetting, but she hadn’t remembered to turn it off as she went to bed last night, distracted as she was by Eddie kissing behind her ear, down her neck, gently and slowly making his way to her front, to her breasts, her stomach, to her—

‘Shit.’

She hit the alarm off. Her head hurt. Eddie didn’t move. He slept on his front with his head turned away from her, lightly snoring with every inhale. Nadia sat up and blinked slowly, rubbing at her eyes. It was light outside, but not as light as it had been.The days are getting shorter, she thought, her hangover evidently making her grumpy and partial to depressing sayings her grandmother used to utter. It was hardly the bleak midwinter. It just felt that way, in her head.

She looked over at the man beside her. How the hell had that happened? And then it came back to her. A dare. A bet. A challenge that she’d lost, and drank a shot for. Tequila, she thought, bile rising in her throat at the memory of it. She couldn’t remember how long she had stayed for, or why Eddie’s friend hadn’t arrived. She picked up her phone to a text from Gaby:Glad you’re having fun!it said. The only message Nadia had sent before that was,GETTING VERY DRUNK QUITE HANDSOME.Gaby wouldn’t have known that she didn’t mean Train Guy. She meant … oh god. This guy.

She padded to the bathroom and ran the shower. Memories continued to come back to her in pieces: her hand on Eddie’s arm as she laughed, Eddie’s hand on her upper thigh as he whispered something, another round being ordered, and then another. She hadn’t meant to sleep with him. Hadn’t meant to let it all go that far.

Oh god, she thought, filled with regret.Oh god, oh god, oh god.

She peed – a radioactive pee, as dark as her head felt – and turned to run a shower. She could smell the alcohol evaporating as she stood under water so hot it was almost scalding, slowly waking up.

‘Morning, beautiful.’

Eddie pulled back the shower curtain, letting in the cold air. Nadia instinctively covered her boobs and crossed her legs, which was weird considering some of the things Eddie had seen last night.

‘I’ll take a piss and then climb in,’ he said, leaning across with puckered lips. Nadia didn’t know what to do. She leaned to meet him and their lips pecked. He smiled in response and disappeared again.

Nadia listened to him pee and – wait. Could she smell it too? Could she smell his piss? Eddie was whistling to himself, almost cheerfully, and Nadia wondered how he could function. Maybe her headache was as much of an emotional one as a drink-enforced one – she remembered, now, that Train Guy had stood her up, and her tummy sank all over again. That bastard.

Her water ran cold as Eddie flushed the toilet. Nadia turned around to wash her face, thinking maybe the cold water would close her pores (wasn’t that a good thing? Helpful for clear skin?) and then there was another shot of air behind her and Eddie hugged her from behind. She could smell his morning breath.

‘Last night was amazing,’ he said.

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