Our Stop

by Laura Jane Williams

  ‘That sounds like a pretty sweet double act,’ Romeo said.

  ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Daniel replied.

  Daniel headed across the road to the tube, so he could bounce across the city to get to one of the City Professionals networking events. He’d been fifty-fifty on whether he should go, but since his great day he decided he should. If good luck came in threes, he was open to what Good Luck Number Three might be. He actually didn’t have a contract lined up for after he finished at Converge at Christmas, although he suspected they might keep him on to establish the next part of the project. It wouldn’t hurt to mingle with some new faces and hand out a few business cards.

  ‘Daniel!’ came a voice, not long after he’d hung up his coat and headed to the bar. There was always the awkward entrance when arriving somewhere alone, especially at a work event, that meant the safest bet was to do a lap of the room and then get a drink, figuring out where the friendliest faces were. He was relieved to have been commandeered by someone. The first conversation opener was always the hardest.

  ‘Gaby!’ Daniel said, turning around with his small glass of red. ‘The woman, the myth, the legend.’

  Gaby leaned in and they kissed both cheeks. ‘I owe you an apology,’ she said.

  Daniel wafted a hand. ‘Bygones,’ he said, presuming she meant to apologize for leaving him stranded at her work’s summer party a few months ago.

  ‘Your email back to me was so kind, but I just wanted to say again that I am mortified that I cajoled you into coming to that party and then abandoned you without even explaining that Nadia wasn’t coming. The whole thing was a mess. And you were very gracious about it.’

  Daniel’s body jolted at the name Nadia. He knew, of course, that Gaby couldn’t be alluding to his Nadia, if he could call her that, but the name was so rare, really – he’d never met a Nadia before the Nadia on his train – that he couldn’t help but have a reaction to it.

  ‘Oh god, did I say something wrong?’ Gaby asked.

  ‘No, no. It’s just – Nadia. You don’t hear of many Nadias around.’

  Gaby shrugged. ‘I’ve never thought about it, but no, I guess not.’ She smiled at him. ‘How are you enjoying Converge, anyway? I’ve actually heard really interesting things about the ways they’re incorporating the use of cloud storage in data expansion …’

  And so the night went on. Fancy people talking fancy talk, with surprisingly good red wine and waiters dressed in bow ties serving tiny Yorkshire puddings with roast beef on them.

  Daniel couldn’t shake the fact that Gaby had brought up a Nadia, and as she caught him before he left, delayed by searching for his gloves that he could have sworn he’d put in his pockets, he couldn’t help but ask: ‘Gaby, weird question. But your friend Nadia – what’s her surname?’

  ‘Fielding,’ Gaby replied. ‘Why?’

  Daniel shrugged. ‘No reason,’ he said. ‘I just wondered if it was the Nadia I knew. Small world and all.’

  ‘And is it?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ Daniel said, actually having no idea if it was or it wasn’t. He’d never known what ‘his’ Nadia’s surname was.

  ‘Okay, well. Goodnight. See you at the February party?’

  Daniel nodded. ‘See you at the February party. Let me know if I can help with anything?’

  ‘Will do,’ Gaby said, turning her attention to another departing guest she wanted to say goodbye to.

  Daniel googled NADIA FIELDING as soon as he stepped outside, his fingers bitterly cold, but the task at hand too important to delay. A series of photographs came up of the Nadia he knew – the Nadia from the market, and the train, and who he’d seen last night. He had a surname now, and from that he had a LinkedIn profile that confirmed she worked at RAINFOREST. He could hardly believe his luck. Gaby knew her! He was supposed to have been introduced to her months ago! All the signs pointed to the fact that he was absolutely supposed to meet her. It seemed their fates were unavoidable.

  I feel it, he thought to himself. This time, I won’t mess it up. He couldn’t wait for the ad to run – he was so excited to finally, at last, meet her. They were meant to be! He couldn’t believe he’d almost missed the love of his life.

  45

  Nadia

  ‘Shit. Shit, shit, shit.’

  Nadia Fielding launched down the escalator of the tube station, her new winter boots hitting the steps with force. Coffee held precariously in her hand, bag slipping from her shoulder, beret beginning to move from the top of her head down to the side, Nadia was a mess – but she’d be damned if she wasn’t getting the 7.30. Today was a do-over on The New Routine to Change Her Life. She was getting on that damned train, she was going to have a superb day, and she was going to be a woman in charge of her own life. The air was different, today. She was different, today. Possibility for the adventure of her own life splayed before her. I’m going to meet Waistcoat Guy again, she continued to tell herself. I see it. I feel it.

  She made it onto the platform, into her usual spot, before the train pulled up, and was thrilled she did because, amazingly, perfectly, OH-MY-GOD-I-CAN’T-ACTUALLY- BELIEVE-IT-EXCEPT-THIS-IS-WHAT-I-VISUALIZED-LY – and there HE was. @DannyBoy101. The guy from the cinema event. The man she’d stalked on Instagram and willed to cross her path again.

  Shit, Nadia thought. It really is him! He was cuter than she remembered. She had literally been on his Instagram only that morning, sneaking a peek to see if he had uploaded anything since the movies. He hadn’t. Nadia had been frustrated, wanting a titbit about his life to fuel her interest in him, but his mysterious online ways gave her nothing.

  She took a breath.

  She looked across to the left as the train slowed to a stop.

  The train doors opened.

  @DannyBoy101 looked up.

  Their eyes met.

  ‘Hello,’ he said, and as people pushed around her to board the train, she walked towards him, slowly, relieved that he seemed to recognize her.

  ‘Hi.’

  They stood and smiled at each other like they had done the other night, until the forward movement of the train forced Nadia to stumble slightly. As a knee-jerk reaction, @DannyBoy101 held out his arm and she grabbed it, waiting for the train to pick up speed before trusting herself to regain her centre of gravity. His arm was rock solid. She didn’t want to let go.

  ‘I almost didn’t recognize you fully clothed,’ she smiled, and @DannyBoy101 laughed.

  ‘Yeah, I tend to save the leather waistcoat for when I’m not about to meet with my boss, and my boss’s boss, and my boss’s boss’s boss.’

  Nadia made a big demonstration of being impressed. ‘Big day for you then.’

  @DannyBoy101 swallowed and, holding her gaze and without blinking, said, in a voice that felt all loaded and heavy and deliberate: ‘Apparently so.’

  The way he said it was so laden with meaning that she felt her nipples get hard as her cheeks flushed. She smiled, willingly herself to rise to the occasion of the moment. She didn’t want to be shy, or let this pass her by. She had to be brave. She was securing the name and telephone number of this man, confidence wobbles be damned.

  Nadia was vaguely aware of the intrigue from the people around them. The London Underground was famed for being notoriously unfriendly. Several campaigns had been instigated over the years, typically from people Not From Here, to encourage chit-chat and smiles, including but not limited to badges that said ‘Talk to Me!’ in the red, white and blue colours of Transport for London (ostensibly not, in fact, issued by them) to buskers asking people to sing along, to American tourists trying to drum up conversations with locals only to be met with a stony silence and a pointed seat change. But – Londoners had a nose for romance. They loved a ‘Tube Meet’. Nadia was quite sure one young woman had even taken off her headphones to listen in to them more closely.

  ‘Where do you get off?’ Nadia said eventually, her voice a little high-pitched – but at least she’d used it.

  �
��There’s a joke in there somewhere,’ @DannyBoy101 smiled.

  ‘Very funny.’

  ‘I try my best.’

  ‘I’m sure you don’t have to try at all.’

  Another loaded silence. Nadia knew, without a shadow of doubt, that he felt what she felt. He couldn’t not. She couldn’t explain what was happening, but she knew, understood implicitly, that this guy was going to be something mind-blowingly meaningful to her.

  The train slowed down as they approached London Bridge.

  ‘This is me,’ said @DannyBoy101.

  ‘Oh – me too,’ said Nadia.

  @DannyBoy101 held out his hand to indicate that Nadia should lead the way, and they walked side by side in the mass of people heading to the escalator, where Nadia got on first. She turned around, and being on the higher step meant she was now eye to eye with @DannyBoy101, at about the same height. She was close enough to smell him: cloves and sandalwood and maybe cedarwood too. He had the tiniest speck on red blood at the side of his face, down on his jaw. Nadia thought it must have been from shaving, since his stubble was cropped close to his face. She could smell his mouthwash. Peppermint.

  Nadia wondered to herself if she’d seen him before – before the cinema event. She must have seen him on the train, if this was where he worked too – though to be fair, she normally had her nose in her phone. @DannyBoy101 looked at her, leaning forward a little bit, and she almost closed her eyes and tilted her chin to receive his kiss before he said, pan-faced, ‘You’re staring at me, you know.’

  She burst out laughing.

  ‘Oh my god – I’m sorry.’ She covered her face with a hand, and then dared look at him again, searching his eyes. Palpable electricity passed between them.

  ‘It’s just …’ she began, but he interrupted her.

  ‘Watch out!’ he said, gesturing. He held on to her elbow and spun her around in time for her to realize they were at the top of the escalator. A moment later, and she would have been on the floor, no doubt taking out double figures of commuters with her. They walked side by side and she felt it again: the pull. Ask me if I want get coffee before work, she silently willed him, forgetting that she was more than capable of asking him if he wanted coffee. Ask to see me again.

  ‘Well,’ @DannyBoy101 said, as they reached the exit. ‘I’m this way. At Converge.’ He indicated left.

  ‘And I’m this way,’ said Nadia, indicating right. ‘At RAINFOREST.’

  Ask him for his number, Nadia thought. Don’t be a pussy, come on!

  ‘Well …’ @DannyBoy101 said.

  ‘Well …’ Nadia said.

  Come on! she thought.

  ‘Do you …’ Nadia said, as @DannyBoy101 said, ‘I thought that maybe …’

  They laughed.

  She insisted he speak. He insisted she speak. They talked over each other and then neither said anything and Nadia decided she would ask him – she’d tell him she was getting coffee and that he should join her and—

  ‘I really want to ask you for coffee,’ he said, finally.

  ‘I was just thinking the same!’ Nadia said. ‘Yes! Do you know Pete’s coffee cart just around the corner? He does great coffee, I think it’s the blend he has, something about Arabica beans with Robusta too? His hazelnut-milk flat whites are to die for. To die for!’

  ‘I was going to say,’ @DannyBoy101 continued, ‘I really want to ask you for coffee but I have my meeting – the big one? With all the important people?’

  Nadia felt really fucking stupid. Surely not. Surely she hadn’t misread this. Surely!

  ‘Your meeting, yes. Go. Go impress.’ She gave a hollow and awkward laugh, and then felt even more stupid. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Can I, maybe, erm, can I take your number?’ he said, holding out his phone to her. ‘Will you put it in here? I’d like to take you out. On a date. If you’d like that too.’

  Nadia felt relief flood through her. ‘I would like that very much,’ she beamed, taking his iPhone and typing in her number under the name ‘Girl on the Train’.

  ‘Okay then,’ he said, as she gave it back.

  ‘Text me,’ she said.

  He nodded. ‘I will.’

  He walked away, turning around not once but twice to grin at her, widely. He almost walked into a man with a briefcase. It made Nadia laugh. She stood and watched him go with a little wave, butterflies dancing in her stomach. She felt as though the whole train ride had been a rollercoaster, going up and up and up towards the peak, and the moment she was suspended in now was the moment before the freefall, when everything blurred and went fast and she lost control.

  Her phone beeped. Unknown number.

  I’m glad we didn’t miss our stop today, it said. She presumed it was from @DannyBoy101, but Nadia didn’t get it. Miss their stop? Huh? Why would they have missed their stop?

  She tossed the thought around in her mind, trying to unpick it. Their stop.

  How did he know they had the same stop? Is that what he meant? That they could have kept talking on the train and missed their stop?

  I’m glad we didn’t miss our stop.

  Was it a saying she didn’t know about? That like, when you met somebody you fancied you got off at their stop?

  No. That didn’t sound right.

  I’m glad we didn’t miss our stop.

  Didn’t miss our stop.

  Our Stop.

  The Twitter hashtag.

  #OurStop

  Miss our stop? thought Nadia. Why would we—

  ‘OH MY FUCKING GOD,’ she said into her phone, holding down the record button to Emma. ‘I think I just met him. Train Guy! I think I just met him! Fucking call me!’

  46

  Nadia

  Fifteen minutes later her phone lit up with a message, and Nadia grabbed her phone quicker than she ever had before in the hope that it was @DannyBoy101 again – though she supposed she could now think of him as Train Guy. She surprised herself by being just as excited to see Emma’s name, who’d sent a link to a tweet. God, she missed her friend. She hoped they could get back to normal soon. Nadia opened it.

  I think I just stood behind the #OurStop couple at London Bridge station – they were talking to each other! I think they might be dating! I need somebody to be as invested in this as I am! it said. There was a fuzzy photograph of the back of @DannyBoy101’s head, almost totally obscuring the back of Nadia’s. But it was them. It was them not even a half-hour ago, on the escalator, when Nadia felt her tummy lurch and pupils dilate and like she should note the date, and time, and location, because she’d never want to forget when she knew she had finally met her person.

  Aside from the fact that it was weird somebody had invaded their privacy that way, Nadia’s stomach did a little flip. If she thought he was Train Guy, it this woman on the internet thought he was Train Guy, it was all looking increasingly likely that the @DannyBoy101 was Train Guy.

  Holy shit, she thought. She added it all up in her mind: Train Guy had stood her up, and she’d tried to put him to the back of her mind, and then she’d met @DannyBoy101 at Secret Cinema, deciding she fancied him even before he had turned around, and now it turned out that they were the same person.

  ‘Fuck me,’ she said to Emma, deciding to hide in the company bathroom and call her. ‘I met Train Guy!!!!!’

  She didn’t open her conversation with a hello, or a ‘We’ve not spoken in ages’. Nadia got straight down to business.

  ‘I found him!’

  ‘This is so cool,’ Emma said, down the phone. ‘Like, I’d given up on him! But now he’s here!’

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ Nadia said. ‘He’s so cute. Like, you’ll die he is that cute.’

  ‘Amazing,’ Emma said. ‘Totally amazing. This is just perfect. So, what now?’

  Nadia was thankful there were no awkward pauses or needless explanations of why they’d both been absent from each other’s lives. She was just glad they were talking.

  ‘Well, I put my number in his phone, an
d he texted straight away. That’s how I know it was him. He basically told me as much. So now I … text back? Oh god, I just can’t believe it’s him!’

  ‘And we’re very sure he doesn’t seem like a psychopath?’

  ‘Emma, he is so normal and cute and a bit geeky and quite handsome. He’s like … fucking it. He didn’t even have coffee breath!’ As soon as she said it, she realized she probably had done. Oh well.

  ‘Emma,’ Nadia continued. ‘I know things have been weird between us lately, but will you meet me for lunch? I need you.’

  ‘Of course I will,’ Emma said. ‘Just tell me where.’

  47

  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 it was Nadia 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.’