Contest: Twilight of Craigslist AD Contest (Part I)
Title: Dream Girl On Train
Rating: K
Word Count (minus A/N and header): 551
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Please Notice Me, Dream Girl in Quiet Car (Chicago)
Date: 2011-10-22, 7:30AM CST
Reply to:
When Metra Rail announced that there would be quiet cars on each route, I was ecstatic. The promise of no loud-mouthed commuters, no crying babies, and no loud music as I travelled back and forth to work was my idea of heaven. I pictured all of the extra work I could get done, and how much more productive I could be. But on the first day of the new policy, I boarded the train at my normal station only to find someone new occupying my usual seat.
Forced to sit in a cramped, unfamiliar seat next to the largest, greasiest face print left on the window that I've ever seen (and it's been two months, and that grease slick is still stuck to the window—way to go, Metra cleaning crew), I silently grumbled to myself with my limited leg room while you enjoyed reading on your Kindle for the hour long commute into downtown. I couldn't even sleep the trip away since I wasn't able to lean against the window like I normally would due to said nasty face print. I got off the train in Chicago without seeing who the seat stealer was. All I knew is that she had long, brown hair and didn't know that us regulars stuck to the same seats in the morning.
Soured by the less than stellar ride into the city, I braced myself for the worst when I walked to the train after work that afternoon. I looked forward to sitting in the quiet car again, but I worried about how crowded it would be. As I sat down in an empty double seat, I waited nervously to see who would be my seatmate. The train was filling up fast, and soon the only seats left were the one next to mine and the one a row up and across from mine. A large, sweaty man lumbered up the aisle, almost sideswiping the seats as he went. As luck would have it, he plopped his smelly butt down next to me. But like the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm, you appeared from behind the rotund figure and took the remaining seat. And you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
Over the following weeks, I've been drawn in by not only your beauty, but your generosity and politeness. I've seen you give up your seat to an elderly man when the train was full. You've also offered up a punch on your pass to someone who didn't have enough money for their fare. I know that you're smart from the scientific journals that you read or the presentations that you sometimes prepare on a laptop on the way home. You're always dressed in business casual with minimal makeup, but I'm blown away every time you walk onto the platform.
We've come close to sitting together, but every day I wait, hoping that it will be my lucky day and we'll share a seat for one hour at the end of the day, even if we aren't allowed to speak. You still sit in my old seat every morning, but we now share a smile when I board a stop after you do. I'm hoping that one day soon we can talk, and maybe it will lead to more.
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