Page 78 of Our Stop

She smiled at him. ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘The commute.’ He was so handsome – and so polite too, always making sure she was comfortable and topping up her glass without asking.

‘Well. I saw you by the market one day, not long after I had started my job. Before the summer – maybe in May? You were with some slick, corporate guy, talking so passionately about, like, artificial intelligence? And laughing, and being smart, and I just knew you were a woman I wanted to know.’

‘Slick corporate guy? I mean – if that was with Jared, that really was months ago! I got the go-ahead on that in … May, I think. April, even!’ Nadia wanted to know everything about this man who had spotted her in a crowd so long ago. Why hadn’t she seen him then?

Daniel looked down at his lap, where he fiddled with his hands. ‘Yeah. I felt so stupid for not approaching you then, but what was I gonna do? You were working, and—’

Nadia realized something: ‘And if you had tried to say hi I would have totally blown you off.’

Daniel laughed. ‘Exactly. Let the woman have her lunch meeting!’

Nadia laughed too. Now she thought about it, it was pretty rare to have a guy randomly strike up conversation. Maybe that was why she’d stayed and talked to Eddie when he did, on that fateful night. It was important not to be hassled on the street, but on reflection, she hardly ever spoke to somebody she didn’t already know. Like Eddie had said, it just didn’t happen.

‘But then I saw you,’ he continued, ‘on the train. My train. And over a couple of weeks I figured out that on a Monday you always got the 7.30, and sometimes on a Tuesday too.’

Nadia laughed from her. ‘Ha! That’s hilarious to me. I always have the best intentions at the start of the week, and it never lasts. I’m just not a morning person!’

‘Noted,’ Daniel said. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

Nadia smirked.

Daniel blushed.

‘But I panicked then too. What was I supposed to do? Talk to you on the underground like a psychopath?’

He took a long sip of his drink. The condensation cooled on the outside of his glass, leaving a little wet mark on his chin. Nadia wanted to lean over and wipe it for him. She wanted to straighten his collar and touch his neck and pull him in close.

‘Again, I would have told you where to go.’ It’s true. She’d never spoken to another human on the tube in her life, except to maybe say ‘Excuse me’ or ‘Can you move your bag, please?’

‘So I wrote to you. And then you wrote back. So I wrote again. It’s funny, but I actually sent anotherMissed Connectionafter the cinema, and it ran today. But then I saw you on the tube and you recognized me and the adverts … didn’t matter anymore.’

‘This is so weird, but my friend Gaby tried to set me up with you. Didn’t you go to the RAINFOREST summer party?’

‘Yup. Gaby. Gaby asked me to. But you never showed.’

‘And then the night at the bar? I showed up then!’

‘My mum … she’s just widowed. My dad died earlier this year. She was so upset …’

‘Oh gosh,’ Nadia said. ‘That’s so awful. I’m so, so sorry.’ She could see the sorrow flicker across his face. She could see the traces of grief in his expression.

‘It’s okay. She had this huge meltdown that night and I think it was a relief for both us, to be honest – it stripped away a bit of the trying-to-be-strong and made us a bit more honest. She goes swing-dancing now, and got a karaoke machine for the living room so she can have a bit of a sing-along without anyone in the house to tell her she carries a tune like a strangled cat.’

Nadia reached out and slipped her hand into his, on his lap, playfully nudging him. The tenderness of it sent pulses through them both. He continued, encouraged: ‘That’s why I left that night – she was so upset. And then the next day I saw you with your boyfriend and thought maybe it wasn’t you I’d been writing to after all. I mean – I meant it to be for you, but … Oh, I don’t know!’

‘Do you know when I met that guy?’ Nadia said, understanding he meant Eddie.

‘When?’

‘The night you stood me up.’

‘No way.’

‘Way.’

Daniel stroked her hand with his thumb. ‘Shit! I thought you’d been together for ever!’ He knew leaving would have cost him, he just didn’t account for how much.

‘And then the cinema thing …’ Nadia continued. She figured Daniel had been pretty honest and vulnerable with her, so she would give him something of herself in return.

---