Something draws my head to the left of her, like there’s a magnetic force drawing me in. Next to her stands a raven haired beauty with sparkling green eyes and a bright grin to match. She’s tall, slender, yet curvy too and she has the most deliciously plump lips that I’ve ever seen in my life. She’s gorgeous. So much so that I feel a tiny spark igniting within me. One that’s lay dormant ever since Laura. I haven’t had any pull of desire for anyone but there’s something very intriguing about this woman. I cock my head and stare at her curiously, staring at her as if she’s on a TV screen or something, not an actual human being in real life. I think I forget that she is until the moment she seems to sense my eyes upon her and she snaps her eyes around to meet mine.
My heart jolts, I feel a powerful shock racing through me, it almost knocks me off my feet. Her lips ever so slightly curl up into a smile which makes me feel amazing. She looks like she might actually not hate me for just happening to be another commuter on the same train as her, taking up air and space.
Ask her out, the devil on my shoulder hisses inside my brain. A fling will ward off loneliness.
I haven’t ever been the fling sort of person, but it might well be time to step out of my shell, just for a little while. After all, if romance offers a short term thing while I’m on my travels, I don’t want to get caught up or fall too deep, so this might be a good time to start practicing that.
With a moment of confidence bursting through my veins and the knowledge that this is almost my stop, I step closer to her, already planning what our date might be like. She’s cute and looks like fun so I’ll definitely want to include some drinks in that. But not too many. I’m known for being quite clumsy when I’m drunk.
I get close enough to part my lips, preparing myself to say something but before any words can fly out of my mouth there’s an odd, cackling sound that comes over the conductor announcement system, one that’s too muffled for anyone to understand, and the train comes to an abrupt halt.
I watch in horror as my feet stumble and the coffee cup in my hand slips. It happens in slow motion, the liquid flies from the cup, heading faster towards the woman than my feet could have ever gone.
No! I want to scream. Stop.
But I can’t. It’s too late, the coffee has hit her and it’s turned her posh white blouse into a horrible shady of lukewarm brown…
The first woman I’ve liked in forever and I’ve swilled her with a drink.
Marvelous.
2
Tamara
“This is it, Katherine, I’m so freaking nervous.” Stepping onto the subway is a big step for me, but what comes next is going to be way worse. I am not prepared for this at all. “I suck at speaking, you know that about me.”
I clutch onto her arm and give her a pleading look. I need her to get me out of this, I want her to fake a heart attack or something, anything to assist me in my mad escape. I’m not equipped for this, she can see that.
“Girl, if you are brave enough to run away from that loser ex of yours, you can do this.”
I narrow my eyes, annoyed by her betrayal. “But that was easy,” I whine. “I just had to pack a bag and go. This is sitting in front of a panel of people who already aren’t going to like me, because as you know I don’t give off the best first impression and give them reasons not to hire me when they already don’t want to!”
“It wasn’t easy for you to leave Pete after three years, we both know that, so stop playing it down.”
I grit my teeth, refusing to answer her. Mostly because she’s right and that really doesn’t serve my purpose.
“And yes, I know better than anyone that you give the shittiest first impression ever.” Katherine rolls her eyes dramatically. “In case you’ve forgotten, you tried to steal my boyfriend when we first met.”
“Oh, my goodness, are you gonna ride on the coat tails of that story forever? We were eleven years old and I didn’t know Danny was your boyfriend. He didn’t say he was when he asked me to lift up my shirt.”
“Which you did…” The accusation fires in her eyes. She really isn’t ever going to recover from this.
“But only to show him my bright pink crop top, I was just so proud of it.” I fold my arms across my chest. “I didn’t have anything to show him then anyway, so it was pointless. And I did you a favor. Would you still want to be with that slime ball now? I heard he works as a bouncer for a strip club. How gross is that?”
“Well, he isn’t one of the strippers, is he?” She shudders. “But no, I suppose not. He is pretty gross.”
“Anyway, you’re with Bear now, so that’s awesome, right? Things are still going well?”
I cross my fingers behind my back hoping they aren’t. I don’t want her with Bear, he’s horrible. An idiot too. He won’t even tell anyone what his real name is, as if we’re going to believe it’s ‘Bear’. Idiot. He’s got a cocky attitude as well. That seems to be something that Katherine goes for, but there’s nothing underneath.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She averts her eyes making me mentally fist pump the air. “I think we’re done.”
“Oh no, why not?” I don’t have to feign my sympathy. I don’t want my friend to be hurt.
“I just don’t think he’s that great a person, you know? Not someone I want to be with.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” Time to start moving on to a new man. The quicker she finds someone else the less likely she’ll be to accidently slide