AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I don’t have one, but I need to get back onto the train,’ Helen said remarkably assertively, balancing her wonky carry-on between her legs as she wrestled off the first of her three jumpers.
‘Please stand aside.’
‘I’ve actually lost something very important on that train.’ She could still just see the outline of Brody as he walked down to the far end of the curving platform.
‘And what is that, Miss?’
‘My … passport.’ At least she sounded desperate. She yanked her scrunchy out of her hair.
‘You’ll have to wait for the cleaners to return. If they have the item, you will receive it then. You will first have to register the lost item online, you can do that now.’ The man prodded her mobile phone.
‘Can’t I get it?’
‘No, you can’t. Once you have disembarked the train you may not re-embark. Now please stand aside.’
Brody’s silhouette had slipped out of sight.
‘Okay, look it’s not my passport, it’s my … boyfriend. He’s on that train and I need to speak to him!’
‘Can’t you call?’ The hand prodded her mobile again.
‘I don’t have his number.’ The man’s moustache bristled as he physically exhaled in response.
‘We met on a dating app. The dating app broke and now I’ve lost his contact details and I need to get them back!’
‘So, what you’re telling me is, he’s not your boyfriend.’
‘Technically no, but things were … things were definitely heading in that direction.’
‘May I give you a word of advice Miss? Leave it. If he wants to see you, he will, and by the looks of things he doesn’t. Now please stand aside.’
The train on platform nine shuddered to a start.
Helen was not a risk taker. She pretended she’d sprained her ankle on her first (and only) ski trip to avoid having to attempt ski lifts, and anything icey-mountainy. She developed a love for hot chocolate instead.
Yet she found her hands letting go of her case, and her legs moving beneath her. As the case clattered to the ground her hands clamped down on the gate ahead as she swung her legs forwards over the barriers. Just like hurdling at school: but more successful. She started to run down the platform. Heart beating furiously. Cardigan shimmying down her hips. Calling ‘Brody’ as she sprinted.
He was going to hold her. It was going to be such a big surprise. Sophie would say that it was fate how they met again. What were the odds? She would show Elle that it was for real. She would have a date with him in London, their legs glancing each other under the table of a dimly lit cocktail bar. She wouldn’t be the last one left … She would …
She was going to … not make it. Just like a movie, her hands planted onto the train doors just as they clenched shut, and the train mockingly pulled away. Her hands fell onto her knees, hot and sweaty. Why hadn’t he seen her? How could she not have caught him? She had jumped the ticket barrier!
Blank faces stared at her through the carriage windows, and an old Twix wrapper blew around at her feet. She knew she looked blotchy, red and stupid. Why didn’t Brody see her? Was it him? It was definitely him. They were destined to meet again; she could just feel it.
The knowledge that he still existed made Helen feel a bit sick. As the days had passed since she last saw him it had been easier to pen Brody off in her mind, a ‘no trespassing’ zone that she tried to avoid thinking about, which millimetre by millimetre was receding into the distance. That night with him had taken on a dream-like quality, every time she dredged it up from her memories she remembered the colour of the evening sky differently, and the words he said morphed and shifted around until all she was left with was a feeling. The sensation as he kissed her.
Now he was right in front of her again. It was like she could still feel the warmth in the air where he’d walked. The carefully constructed barriers in her mind were tumbling over and she felt if she could just concentrate hard enough it was like he was here, right here with her now. But he wasn’t. He hadn’t even seen her.
‘Miss, please return to this side of the ticket barriers: we will be required to log this as an incident.’
Chapter 21
Elle:Love, you know I don’t think you should be chasing guys but that stunt today?!
Wow.
That was CRAZY even for you.
I’m going to listen to this voice note again!!
