My endless thanks go to Lisa and Joni for their help with this piece.
Emma had been rushing to get to the station, when it happened.
She'd moved to town only the day before, and had naively believed that she would be able to navigate her way to the train station without any prior preparation. As it turned out, the town was bigger than she thought it was, and she'd ended up heading in completely the opposite direction to the one she was supposed to be walking in.
She had just pulled out her phone to admit defeat, and pull up Google Maps, when she had bumped into him.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," she apologized, as she fumbled with her phone, rushing to stuff it safely into her pocket. The last thing she needed was for it to drop and smash. "I'm completely lost and I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's quite alright," he chuckled. "You're lost?"
Emma's brain shut down temporarily at the sound of his voice. She hadn't been expecting the Irish accent. When she lifted her eyes to meet his, she almost choked on her tongue. The Irish accent belonged to one dangerously sexy looking man. He was already staring down at her with one brow cocked in amusement, and Emma couldn't decide if she wanted to slap that smug look off his face, or beg him to fuck her there and then.
But there was also something strangely familiar about him too. She was sure she'd seen him somewhere before, but she couldn't seem to put her finger on where exactly.
"Um… yeah," she finally replied, shaking her head to clear it. She was going to be late for her first day of work, if she allowed his pretty eyes to distract her any longer. "Do you have any idea where the train station is in this town?" she asked hopefully.
"You're in luck. I was headed that way myself."
"Do you mind if I tag along?"
"Not at all," he chuckled. "But you're gonna need to turn around."
Emma sighed as she followed his directions, allowing him to take a couple of steps ahead of her, before she caught up to his pace. He seemed to be moving with purpose, so she assumed that he wasn't playing with her, and actually knew where he was going.
"Are you new to town?" he asked conversationally.
"How could you tell?" she deadpanned.
The mysterious Irish man chuckled a little before he asked, "How new?"
"I moved in yesterday afternoon and stupidly thought that I could find my own way from my flat, to the station. But apparently this town is bigger than it looks on a map."
"You do know that maps are drawn to a scale, right?" he teased, winking down at her.
"Yes, thank you, Einstein. I know that now. Next time I'll Google Map it before I leave the house."
She frowned a little as he guided them down a familiar looking path. One that passed right by Emma's flat. The same one she had taken a wrong turn down earlier that morning. Apparently she had been going in the right direction. Until that moment.
"So, what brings you to town?" he wondered, as he pulled a small pack of mints from his bag, and held the tin out to her in a silent offering.
"No, thanks." While he'd been kind enough to her so far, Emma wasn't sure she should be accepting anything other than guidance from a complete stranger. "I have a new job in the city," she explained.
"Oh, really? Were you living locally beforehand?"
"Not at all," she chuckled. "I went to university in Sheffield and ended up staying there after I had graduated."
Emma breathed a heavy sigh of relief when they turned another corner, and the hulking building that made up the local train station immediately came into view. There was nothing about her knight-in-shining-armor that had screamed at her to be wary of him. But one never could be too careful.
"You weren't sure I was actually taking you to the right place, huh?" he teased, having picked up on her mood instantly.
"Well… I did leave myself vulnerable to being taken advantage of there," she argued. "It was probably not my wisest move telling a complete stranger that I had no idea where I was, or where I was going."
"No, probably not," he agreed. "But at least you picked the right stranger to do it with this time."
As they made their way over to the ticket barrier, Emma's eyes scanned the small digital board quickly to see which platform she would need to wait on, and if her train was delayed at all. Of course it was, and that was why she had picked the one that left slightly earlier than necessary that morning. She wasn't willing to risk a delay that would make her late for her first day of work.
"Do you need some guidance to get you onto the right platform?" her mystery man asked cheekily, as he threw a look back at her over his shoulder.
"I think I can find platform two on my own, thank you."
Emma waved her small pass over the sensor and the gates opened easily for her, allowing her to step straight out onto platform one. A quick glance to her left showed a tiny waiting room, already full of passengers awaiting the arrival of the next train to London. A little further down was a set of restrooms, and besides those was a tiny corner shop.
Emma had taken her eyes off the kind stranger who had helped her find the station, and instead, headed to browse what the small store had to offer. She was pleasantly surprised to find that it was well stocked with enough snacks to make up for her lack of breakfast that morning, and pocket-sized activity books that would help keep travelers occupied on long journeys.
She picked up a box of breakfast bars, thinking they would probably be good to store in her desk at work; a small box of mints; and a bottle of water, before heading back out to find her way over to the platform she needed to be on.
"The bridge is to your left," came a mischievous voice from just beside her, startling her attention away from the sign she had been looking at, to the large metal staircase and walkway that bridged the two platforms just a few feet away.
"I think I could have worked that one out for myself."
"Eh, debatable." He winked in her direction to show that there were no hard feelings, as he pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning against. The mysterious Irish man nodded his head to suggest that Emma should start walking first, and she sighed a little dramatically in his direction, before finally moving.
She wanted to be annoyed by his cocky arrogance, but she couldn't seem to fight the smile that pulled at her lips, as she felt him fall into step just behind her. Emma's mystery man followed her over to the platform they both needed to be on, whistling some kind of annoying tune the entire way there.
Thanks for reading.