Delayed | b.w.s

7

16:27

"Nope. Guess again." I shake my head at his awful guess at my favourite film.

"I've guessed a million times!" He groans.

"Actually, you've only guessed three times." I chuckle.

After Brad telling me the heartbreaking story about the controlling girlfriend that he never fell out of love with, we decided to lighten things up a little and learn the more trivial things about one another. So far, I've learnt that he hates the smell of lavender and loves the feeling of getting into a freshly made bed. I've also gotten to know his favourite films and songs, but I prefer the other things.

"Just tell me." He pouts.

His eyebrows turn upwards and his pink lips stick out, enhancing his small dimple in his cheek. I almost smile at the expression and the innocence in it.

"Sorry, those aren't the rules." I shrug with a smug smile, enjoying the playful banter between us.

"I'm changing the rules." Brad fires back with the same playful expression.

"That's no-"

We're interrupted by a nasal, hard to understand voice echoing through the station with more volume than should be used.

"The next train to arrive at platform four, will be the 16:33 London Midlands service to Euston Station."

We both look down at our phones to check the time, each of us grabbing our bags as we do so. Brad takes a little longer but I wait for him to collect his belongings and throw the guitar case onto his back.

"Let's go." He says and we both rush out of the coffee shop and towards our platform.

16:30

"Right then, I guess I'll see you again sometime." I smile as I turn to face Brad to the side of the train whilst the crowds of people push each other to board it.

"Yeah." He smiles. "This was fun, thank you for wasting the hours with me."

"You're welcome." I chuckle. "Thanks for entertaining me."

We stand facing each other in a slightly awkward silence before I realise we need to get on the train.

"Bye then." I smile and turn away from him, walking towards the section that my pre-booked seat is placed. That was a rather awkward way of saying goodbye, but I didn't know what else to do.

I carefully step onto the train and manoeuvre my way through the few people getting into their seats or holding onto the overhead bars to keep themselves steady. My eyes scan the seat numbers above the seats before landing on the number twenty nine and stopping. I notice that the seat opposite mine also has the pixelated word 'reserved' below its number, and I pray that I don't get seated next to some lunatic.

I sit down in the singular seat and rest my bag on the small table, between my seat and the opposite one. I take out my sketchbook and my pen, along with my headphones and my phone, before placing my bag under the table and plugging the headphones into my ears.

16:32

Just as the first song on my favourite album ends, a presence in front of me makes me look up.

"No way." I gasp  as I look at the same brown-eyed man I left outside of the train a few minutes ago. "You know this seat is reserved, right?" I ask him as I take my headphones out of my ears.

He doesn't respond, he only holds his ticket up, showing me the number twenty eight printed on it.

"Of course." I shake my head with laughter. "I wouldn't have gotten away from you even if we hadn't have met at that coffee shop." I laugh.

"Without sounding incredibly cliche, this is fate slapping us right in the face." He takes off his bags and sits back in the seat.

I notice that his large guitar case is now gone, so I assume that he put it in the small storage space before coming to his seat.

"You're right, that did sound incredibly cliche." I tease him.

"Well, I'm afraid you've got another hour and twenty minutes of that, love." He smiles.

"God, help me." I playfully respond, causing us both to laugh loudly and get disapproving stares from passengers surrounding us.

16:46

I click the end of my pen and rest it on the small table as I look at the new scribbles on the piece of paper. I decide that I like it, but I don't have much time to observe it as it is suddenly snatched from in front of me. I look to Brad to see it between his hands and a grin on his face as he watches me.

"Brad!" I quietly shout at him, not wanting to cause a scene in this unusually quiet train. "Give it back." I demand.

"Let me look." He opens the small book and turns to the first page.

I instantly become uncomfortable because I hate people looking in my sketchbook. Art is such a private thing to me and it all seems a bit too personal to be sharing with someone I met just today.

"Brad." I whine.

He ignores me and turns the next page over. I bow my head down and rest it in my hands, then lifting it up to watch his reaction to the scribbles. About the seventh page in, his eyes widen and a small smirk takes place on his lips.

"What?" I ask him, panicking slightly because I don't know what he could be reacting to.

And then I realise. The drawing of him. Oh god, this is going to be mortifying.

"You drew me?" He asks me, a grin slowly forming on his face.

"No, that's definitely not you." I attempt to lie.

"I mean, it sure looks like me and I'm pretty sure I was doing that not too long ago." He teases me as he turns the book around and shows me the page of scribbles depicting Brad on his laptop a few hours ago.

"Shut up." I groan and throw my head into my hands to hide myself from the embarrassment of this situation.

"I don't blame you, I am practically art already." He reaches up and tugs at the elastic hair tie securing his hair, removing it completely and letting his hair fall down to his lower neck.

As his hair naturally falls, he shakes his head in a way that actresses in movies do to seduce someone. I watch as I realise this is the first time I've seen his hair in its natural curly state and I rather like it.

"Hmm...arrogance is so attractive." I sarcastically respond, attempting to be serious but severely struggling to hide the grin pushing its way to my lips.

"I'm kidding." He chuckles. "But seriously, these are so good." He hands me back my sketchbook and I smile at the feeling of it in my hands again.

"Thank you." I timidly respond.

"But I do think there should be at least three more drawings of me in there." He jokes with glistening eyes.

I let my eyes meet his and roll them playfully, giving in to the grin and smiling goofily at him.

"You'll have to earn it." I tease.

"Oh, I intend to." He bites his lip.

• • •

Ew flirty af