Reading time can be talking time (if it’s the right person)

Katya

“Should I not interrupt your people watching?” Henry asked.

I took out my other headphone and turned away from the train window. “I’m not people watching.”

“Hm, actually, I agree. You’re person watching, aka that poor girl you keep stalking but never actually talking to, idiot.”

I pouted at Henry, but he merely lifted an eyebrow. “Tell me I’m wrong,” he said.

I groaned and turned back to the window. He clicked his tongue. “Exactly.”

“She’s cute, okay?” I demanded. “She’s cute and I can’t just approach a person who’s innocently waiting for their train to get here and say ‘you’re cute’ like a creep.”

He clicked his tongue again, shaking his head. “Ex-cu-ses,” he sing songed. “Besides, it’s no less creepy to just stare at her.”

I groaned. “Leave me alone.”

“No.”

“Ugh.”

I turned back to the window, idly rubbing my fingers on the spine of my paperback. I’d get to reading it - the train ride was a decent twenty minutes, perfect for reading when Henry sat on my other side and blocked strangers from interacting with me. He usually struck up a conversation himself, the social butterfly.

I could probably have more reading time, but when I noticed Pretty Reading Stranger, I only read after the train left.

I sighed and leaned my head against the window, feeling somewhat pathetic as per usual. I knew she didn’t come to the train station everyday, and she never got on my train. She wore really cool outfits and either used her book or laptop while she waited.

Today it was a book. She’d sat with her legs crossed and book in her lap, eyes intent on the page. Her long black hair fell forward, and she kept tucking it behind her ear. I wanted to offer her a rubber band; I always wore a bunch on my wrists. Or give her a headband. Today she wore bright yellow cargo pants and a purple top, chunky gold necklaces and earrings glinting in the morning light.

She shifted, hunching forward and lifting the book to hold in her hands.

I blinked.

She was reading my book.

Not my book, the book sitting in my laptop and various notebooks and napkins, but the same, published book I was holding in my lap.

“Henry.”

“Hm?”

“She’s - look.”

I yanked him by the sleeve of his t-shirt, letting him yelp in my ear if he’d just look.

He looked, then turned to me and smirked.

“Well, at least you know she has good taste.”

“You’re only saying that cause you recommended this to me.”

“Precisely.”

I pouted and crossed my arms.

“It’s destiny,” I insisted, looking back outside. She looked further along than me, but not by much.

“So show her then.”

I scoffed. “Excuse me?”

“You’re clearly never gonna talk to her,” he said, hushing me before I even opened my mouth to object, “so you may as well be the crazy person who brightened her day by waving your matching book in her face. Maybe it’ll even become a daily thing.”

He shrugged. I crossed my arms, the book now heavy in my lap.

“You just want me to act a fool, don’t you?”

“No, I want you to stop mooning nearly every morning and go back to your more non-pathetic watching style,” he said. I smacked his arm, and he yelped. I smiled.

“I mean…” I mumbled, picking up the book, “I could. Try it.”

“Go for it, then, you chicken.”

“I’m not a-”

“Bawk-bawk!”

I smacked him again, this time with the book. I wished it was a hardcover, but I still got a wince out of him.

I turned. Pretty Reading Stranger was still seated on one of the benches on the side of the train tracks. She wasn’t far, if a bit further forward than I was.

I hesitantly waved my hand in front of the glass. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t get her attention.

Henry snorted, scrolling through his phone. I glared.

I waved my hand again, then tapped the glass. C’mon.

She still didn’t look up.

I picked up the book and waved it around. Weren’t humans designed to pick up movement in their peripherals? Were her eyes broken?

I hit the glass again, garnering a few concerned looks from the other people on the train, but Henry flashed them a smile and they relaxed. He had that effect on other people.

I did not.

I got up halfway, kneeling on the seat. Henry snorted but otherwise didn’t stop me. She looked up once and glanced around, checking her watch. I hit the glass harder, making it shudder in the frame.

The train lurched and Henry flashed me a concerned look. This was his fault; he’d made me do this and now I was committed. I lost some of my balance and caught myself on the seat in front of me.

And she finally looked up.

She did a double take, a mere glance as the train left the station before seeing me. Her eyes went wide and her lips parted in surprise. Her hand came up to cover her mouth. It wasn’t the good type of surprise.

Oh, she was probably thinking, there’s a crazy person on the train.

Her gaze shifted to the book and then to me; there was a moment where our eyes met before the train picked up speed, and the station disappeared from view.

I slid back into my seat, my arms shaking. The book fell back into my lap.

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Well?” he demanded.

I nodded slowly. “She saw me,” I confirmed with a gulp.

“She saw me and I think she thinks I’m a crackhead.”

>.>.>

“I am never listening to you again.”

“It isn’t my fault.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Henry glared over the top of his laptop. Only the desk between us and my cushy chair kept me from going for his throat. I leaned my head back and groaned.

“I’m an idiot.”

“At least you’re only blaming yourself now.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Katya!”

Henry was only saved by Drew calling me over. He heaved a sigh. I glared.

“Katya, may I see you for a moment?” Drew asked.

“Of course.”

I stood and put on a smile. Drew was a nice superior to Henry. It was probably good - he’d work too late unless she kicked him out at four. She’d probably saved me many trips to the office to drag Henry back home, and for that I was grateful. She let me hang around Henry’s office as long as I didn’t bother him too much and brought in baked treats for the staff every Friday.

“Did you need help with something?” I asked.

“Yes, we have a new employee today and I need someone to show her around. I would ask Henry, she’s beginning work in influencing, but I know he’s swamped today, and you’re free now, no?” she asked.

I nodded; my meeting with my publishing agent was over. I was technically free to go home, but I’d decided to stick around and bother Henry.

Which might not have been the best idea if he had a lot of work. Maybe that was why Drew had pulled me away.

“I’d be happy to,” I said.

Drew smiled and directed me to her office. She opened the door. I glimpsed someone seated inside.

“Aisha, this is Katya. She can show you how things are done around here and introduce you to people if need be”

Introducing anyone to anyone was not my forte but I was willing to try. I stepped out from behind Drew.

And faced Pretty Reading Stranger, no longer through a pane of grimy glass but instead two feet away from me.

I froze. The worst part was that she did too.

“Get started whenever you like, Katya,” Drew said, tapping me on the shoulder.

She left the room, the door clicking shut behind me and sealing my fate.

I tried not to curse. Neither out loud, at myself or at Henry.

I cleared my throat and stuck out my hand. Aisha watched the movement.

“Hi, I’m-”

“Katya. Aisha,” she said, shaking my hand with a little smile. Right, because Drew had said my name and I was a grade-A idiot.

“Yeah. Um. Welcome! You should like working here, it’s pretty chill-”

“You were the girl on the train this morning, right?” Aisha asked.

My soul shriveled and died. It landed like a wilted petal in the pit of my stomach.

I smiled anyway.

“Uh…”

“I’m sorry. I think you were waving for a while, I just didn’t see,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. 

I waved my hands. “No, don’t apologize! It - I dunno, it was impulsive, that’s all.”

“It was sweet. And brave. Do you like the book?” she asked.

I tried not to croak. “Um. Yes. I’m reading it since my friend recommended it”

She hummed. She smiled. She was even prettier up close, and I was probably gonna die.

She was gonna work here. I didn’t come here everyday, but I came here often enough for her to kill me.

She shifted on her feet. No one was talking, I realized belatedly.

“Did it, um, did it freak you out?” I asked, scratching the back of my neck.

She blinked in surprise. Her eyelashes were long.

Oh, that was the worst way to start a conversation.

“I just mean,” I said, trying to stay calm and assess the situation, “that, y’know, you saw a random stranger waving at you with a book. That doesn’t happen everyday. And you looked kinda freaked out after. So if apologies are in order, that’s perfectly fair. I’d prefer to address it now anyways, y’know?”

Wow, I actually felt kind of rational. That deserved a sticker.

Henry had stickers somewhere. I could rob him.

Aisha grinned and shook her head.

“Again, I thought it was really sweet. And honestly…”

Her voice tapered and she took a deep breath. I waited.

“The only reason I may have looked a bit worried was because…well, since I came here today, that was actually supposed to be my train. I hadn’t realized it was there until, well…”

She shrugged.

Realization dawned on me. I smiled.

“Well then,” I said, motioning her forward. “Let me show you around. And then we can talk about how unnecessary the book’s love triangle is.”

She chuckled, her hand over her mouth, before she followed me out.

>.>.>The next morning<.<.<

“Hey.”

I jumped; Aisha was standing next to our row of two seats. Henry tossed a glance my way.

“Hi,” I said, putting my book down. She smiled.

“Uh, I guess I’ll sit…”

She turned to the row opposite ours, where someone was seated in the window seat with headphones on. Aisha’s grip on her bag strap tightened.

Henry drummed his hands on the seat.

“Nah, you sit here with Katya. I’ll cover for you antisocial hermits.”

I kicked Henry’s shin, and Aisha laughed when he grumbled. She took the vacated seat with a smile. Henry flashed me a discreet thumbs up as he got settled.

“Finishing up?” she asked, gesturing to the book in my lap. I nodded.

“You do that then,” she said. “But you better hurry. You’ll never believe what happens at the endddd-”

“No, god, don’t say that.”

She laughed. Technically, I had another book stashed in my bag for when I finished this one.

But hey, even prime reading time like the train could make way for socializing. Once in a while.