Page 66 of Our Stop

Nadia stretched out on her bed, wearing nothing but a towel. She’d got out of the shower almost an hour ago, but in between scrolling through @DannyBoy101’s Instagram (again), staring out of the window, and now talking to Naomi, she’d got no further than moisturizing her legs.

‘It was an accident! I was on the bus on the way to work, and I put up the photo of us, and tagged the location. And then I was bored, and so clicked the geo-tag thing, and it brought up all the photos of that night. And one of the top ones had him in it.’

Naomi’s smirk was obvious even down the phone. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Sure.’

‘It’s true!’

Nadia lazily lifted a leg in the air to examine it. She should have shaved them. They were overgrown and patchy: a crop of thick dark hair sprouted with impunity from behind her ankle.

‘I just – well, because he was wearing that stupid waistcoat thing, it caught my eye when I fell down the Insta-hole.’

She stood up and made her way to stand in front of the mirror.

‘I saw his arms before I saw his face. His friend had tagged him in it. So I clicked on his handle. And then … I had a bit of a look.’

She loosened her towel so she was naked and able to look at her reflection. She turned this way and that, examining herself, and then lifted an arm. She looked like Julia Roberts at theNotting Hillpremiere: she’d forgotten to shave there, too. She wondered if she could pass it off as a political statement, not that anyone saw her armpits.

‘Well, you can’t message him,’ Naomi shrieked. ‘What would you say, “Hey! I eavesdropped on your private conversation and thought you were super emotionally mature and that’s my love language, and then you picked up my phone after knocking it out of my hand and it turns out you’re fit too. I tracked you down like Glenn Close to say: drink?”?’

Nadia shrugged. ‘I mean … yes?’

‘Okay, no. No way. You are way above this. There must be another way! He was cute, darling, but not so cute that you have to act weird about it. What would you do if he messaged you on Instagram?’

‘I know,’ said Nadia. ‘I wondered the same thing. But also, hey! I literally cannot believe you are judging me right now. You don’t know what it’s like to be out there, single and looking! You’ve been with Callum for years. Don’t forget how rare it is to feel … the thing.’ Nadia lay back down on the bed. ‘I felt like I knew him! When he looked at me, it was like you or Emma or Gaby looking back. Dead familiar. Nice.’

‘Jesus. Calm down.’

‘Come on. I need your support here.’

‘Okay. So. You’re going to bump into him, this week. Just like that! As if by magic.’

‘No. Not by magic,’ Nadia admonished. ‘By the law of attraction!’

‘Great plan,’ said Naomi.

Nadia replied, ‘Oh ye of little faith.’

She was still dissatisfied with Naomi’s reaction after they’d said their goodbyes. Emma would have been much better at making her feel less crazy. She missed her. She played with her phone in her hands, turning it over and considering texting her. But to say what? Just hey?

Hey friend – how you doing?she settled on, hitting ‘send’. She stared at the message, waiting to see if it was received, and then read. It wasn’t. Nothing appeared at the top of the screen to indicate that Emma was online and getting the texts. Nadia put her phone in a drawer and pulled on her pyjamas.

‘I’m going to see Waistcoat Guy again,’ she said aloud. ‘I just know it.’

44

Daniel

Daniel was in a great mood – not only had he taken matters into his own hands with Nadia (again), but right before he’d left work, he’d had an email to say that by this time next week, he’d officially be a home owner.

‘I did it,’ he told Romeo in the lobby on the way out. ‘The flat – it’s mine! We’re a go!’

Romeo leapt up from where he sat behind the welcome desk.

‘That’s great, man – really, really well done!’

‘Thanks, dude.’

Romeo looked wistful. ‘I hope me and Erika get to buy a place someday,’ he said. ‘That would be pretty sweet.’

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