Page 71 of Our Stop

Daniel

You’re Train Guy!her text message back read.You’re the one who wrote to me in the paper in the summer!

Daniel fist-pumped the air.Bingo.

Oh thank god, Daniel thought to himself, before realizing,Oh shit. So itwasNadia I stood up that time.He hoped he had been forgiven. Presumably, if she was texting him back, he was. His phone beeped again.

You stood me up, you bastard!

Perhaps all had not been forgiven.

I have a totally legitimate explanation, he typed back.

And I have your bank card, she replied.

You were very good not to order the Dom Pérignon with it, Daniel said.

I almost did, she texted back.

Daniel was pacing up and down in the lobby at work, waiting for Romeo. He couldn’t wait to tell him. He’d freak!

‘Where’ve you been, man?’ Daniel said, as he saw him turn the corner in his uniform.

‘Woah, brother, relax,’ Romeo said. ‘We’ve talked about this before. 8 a.m. is when I get a little rumble in the jungle, you know what I’m saying?’

Daniel did not.

‘Poop, Daniel. About 8 a.m. is when I take my morning poop.’

Daniel wished he didn’t have to know that.

Romeo continued: ‘What’s the trouble?’

‘Nadia. I saw her. Talked to her. And then got her number. I basically told her I’m the one who’s been writing to her.’

‘Well, that’s great! Well done!’

‘No! You don’t get it! I should have … Told her properly. In a grander way, maybe. I want to do something big for her,’ Daniel concluded.

‘Okay …’ said Romeo.

‘I have to do something. I have to do something, now. Today. Strike whilst the iron is hot.’

Daniel was a little bit manic, with his eyes wild and full of half-formed plans. He looked at his watch. He needed to prep the last of some slides before a breakfast meeting to highlight the progress he’d made these past few months, ensuring the partners that he was leaving them with the formula for success.

‘I mean, okay. If you’re sure you’re not being a little dramatic here. You have her number. So, just text her back and ask her out.’

‘No,’ Daniel said, with certainty. ‘No, I want it to be bigger than that. This is going to be the last woman I ever ask out. This is going to be her last ever first date! It has to be memorable. I want her to understand that this is it.’ He reflected on what he’d just said and added, a little more measuredly, ‘You know, not to freak her out or anything. I mean, I just want to do her justice.’

Romeo understood. ‘Okay, okay. What can I do to help you? I’m here, man.’

Daniel looked around the lobby, like the answer might present itself there. ‘Wait here,’ he told Romeo.

‘It’s my job to wait here!’ Romeo said. ‘Literally, I am paid to wait here. In this lobby. All day.’

Daniel ran across the road to the florists at the train station, and paid eighty-five pounds for a bouquet of sunflowers and gerberas and green feathery stuff. He jogged back across the road and handed them to Romeo.

‘Okay, can you go deliver these to Nadia Fielding at RAINFOREST, around the corner? Will you do that for me? I’ve got this meeting …’

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