Page 62 of Our Stop

‘Yeah,’ the guy in the leather waistcoat said, craning his neck to see if the queue was going down at all.

Nadia was hooked. Who were these two men talking so eloquently and beautifully about their feelings? And about the best show on television? The guy in the waistcoat turned, slightly, and reached out to his friend’s shoulder.

‘How you doing anyway?’ he said. ‘I am so, so sorry about your granddad. I know how close you were.’ The one in the shirt seemed caught off guard by that, suddenly welling up. Naomi was listening in intently too, and put a finger to each eye and ran them down her face, as if to say to Nadia,He’s crying.Nadia could see all the hairs rising at the back of his neck. Bless him.

‘It was his time,’ the guy said. ‘But fuck, I miss him, you know?’

‘If you ever want to talk …’ Waistcoat Guy said, and Nadia silently thought to herself,Of course he wants to talk! He’s asking to talk now! Do it now! He won’t come to you again!

The queue for pulled-pork burgers moved slowly in front of them. The guy in the waistcoat said, after assessing they’d be in line for at least another five minutes, ‘What’s your favourite memory of him?’

Nadia’s heart exploded. What a man this guy was. Beautiful arms, able to talk about his feelings, smart too …

She realized Naomi was sort of nodding her head, as if to say,Talk to him!But Nadia couldn’t interrupt this tender moment. The guy had stopped crying and was saying something about how his granddad used to get really bad wind, but would always blame the dog, even after the dog had died. ‘I’d give anything to have him here. He was a right sound bastard.’

The queue inched forward. Nadia pulled out her phone and typed into a blank note,I am in love with these men in front!!!!! OMG!!!

She passed the phone to Naomi, who read it and typed back,More men like this please! Beautiful, open hearts. I’ve got a hard-on for it.

Nadia burst out laughing as she read it, forcing the men in front to turn around, and the man in the waistcoat to hit his elbow on the corner of her iPhone, promptly knocking it to the floor. Without thinking, Nadia instinctively bent down to pick it up, but at the same moment the man in the waistcoat did too, muttering in a London twang, ‘Fucking hell, I’m so sorry. I’m such a clumsy idiot!’

From where they both crouched down, him holding both her phone and the two food vouchers that had fluttered to the ground with it, their eyes met.

Nadia had the thunderbolt. The jolt. The course of electricity pulsed through every cell in her body.

‘Hi,’ she said to him.

‘Hi,’ he replied, smiling.

40

Daniel

Nadia broke out into a nervous giggle as they stood up.

‘I don’t know why I said hi,’ she said. ‘I felt for a minute that I knew you. Sorry.’

Her friend stood beside her, watching the interaction unfold, amused.

‘Here,’ Daniel said, holding out the phone back to Nadia. ‘I hope I didn’t break it.’

‘It’s got a case,’ Nadia said, not even looking at it. ‘I’m clumsy. I drop it all the time. Don’t ever give me a baby to hold!’ she added, giggling again. And then, straight-faced: ‘That was a weird thing to say. Sorry. Again.’

Daniel saw Nadia’s friend smile to the right of him, to where Jeremy was smiling back. It was as if they were agreeing to let the scene play out, content to both act as the audience.

Daniel and Nadia looked at each other.

Daniel repeated: ‘So, this is yours.’ He handed over the phone. He couldn’t help but notice it was open on notes. He wondered what she had been writing.

Nadia took the phone, and grinned.

Daniel’s heart raced. His breathing got faster. This was it – this was his chance. His opportunity to say something smart and charming and clever that would make it okay to then say:It’s me. I stood you up after writing to you in the paper. Can we try again?

Don’t fuck this up, he told himself.Come on!

41

Nadia

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