Chapter 2

Sometimes wrongly Molly could tell what kind of train journey she would have by the person she was sat next to, depending if it was some teenager with their music blasting in their ears from their iPad loud enough for the whole carriage to hear or occasionally she would get ' a right chatterbox who wouldn't stop talking to me about all the boring rubbish that goes on in their lives, do they think I'm interested in how expensive milk can be?' as she regaled Joanna one day after a particularly fraught train journey. Today was going to be a bad one, she immediately could tell. A gentleman sat down next to her, who Molly noted, seemed to love junk food in the mornings as he ate 2 packets of crisps before the train even moved off and was rummaging around in his holdall for chocolate. He had extremely bad body odour and on this really hot summers morning, it wasn't going to be a pleasant journey. As Molly tried ignore the man by looking out of the window to think of the itinerary for today's play with Emily, a deep commanding voice was heard speaking in the direction of the man Molly sat next to.

"I think you're in my seat. Could you move please?"

The gentleman replied with indifference. "I don't think so. Look this train is about to move and I'm sure there's other seats. It's a sunny day, try not to ruin it, mate"

Molly looked at the side and saw a tall gentleman, wearing a very smart pin stripe suit with a light blue shirt underneath. He was very tanned and had thick brown wavy hair and looked to be late twenties or early thirties. He looked irritated at the man in front of him. "Look, I'm not in the mood for games especially as I pay more than I should for train fares and I don't need the attitude of someone trying to take the piss this early in the morning – mate" Molly wondered with amusement who would win this battle of wills as she admitted she hoped the tall gentleman would. He didn't look like he would have an odour problem she smiled to herself.

After a few minutes silence the man Molly sat to, got up and walked back down the carriage saying nothing. The tall stranger sat down, putting his briefcase on the floor and immediately took his jacket off and rolled his shirt sleeves up. She noticed his forearms were as tanned as the rest of him she could see. He had a lovely smelling aftershave on and Molly congratulated herself on her change in fortunes. Then his mobile rang. "Yeah", he sighed deeply after getting the item out of his trouser pocket. "Do you really have to make it that weekend?" "The last time we went I hated it" Molly could just hear the sound of a woman voice on the other end getting louder and louder, she could even hear it over the sound of the train moving. "Fine, whatever do what you think, Rebecca, you normally do" and put the phone down. He sighed again, wiping the phone screen with his thumb and looking wistfully as he switched it off. Molly looked briefly at the man thinking it reminded her of her how her Dad always had the final say with her Mum when she lived at home and always remembered feeling so sorry for her and Molly thought if she was ever in a relationship again, it would be on equal terms with give and take and definitely not with another Baysey type.

As soon as she looked at the man, he looked up and caught her gaze. He gave a half smile. She was immediately taken by his gorgeous chocolate brown eyes but noticed there was a sadness about them. Molly smiled back fiddling with the corners of the picture that she had in her hand.

"Sorry about that", the gentleman said. "That's the last thing you need on a morning, hearing someone arguing".

"That's alright. I'm used to it where I come from with my Dad and it's normally the man that wins" Molly half laughed but realised she may have said something a bit too personal. "Sorry, I didn't mean that."

The gentleman sniffed out a laugh "It's okay. I wish your Dad could teach me how he does it then." sniffing out a laugh. He looked away down the carriage, his face looking more serious and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and then looked out the window next to Molly. Thinking she may be talking a bit too much to someone who clearly had a lot on his mind, she started to open her bag and fold away the picture, not wanting it forget it again.

"So that picture's yours then?" he said sounding surprised. "What a coincidence, I found that blowing around the other day on the platform."

Molly looked at him and raised her eyebrows "Well I guess thanks are in order. How funny that you're the one sat here too." Molly looked into his eyes again and thought she'd never seen eyes so beautiful, expressive and calming all in one. It was like they were the window to his soul, she thought.

"Yeah, it is. I particularly liked the car on the front, you know boys and their toys and all that" "I did a good deed for the day handing that in I thought. It's nice sometimes doing something little for others once in a while." As he said that last comment his eyes turned away to look at his hands, rubbing his thumb against his palm in contemplative thought.

"Well anyone I'm very grateful. I'm Molly by the way. You know the name on the picture" she pointed to her name written in bright red paint. "Well I've not got as much of the red frizzy hair going on as I have there" laughing at Emily's attempts to draw Molly's hair which today was luckily freshly washed and her brown long hair tucked behind her ears.

"Well nice to meet you, Molly. "I'm Charles" he offered his hand. Molly took it in her tiny hand and thinking it had been a few years since she shook a man's hand. Probably David's when she was offered her nanny job. She always thought it was nice and respectable. She noticed his nice long fingers and perfectly clean fingernails. She probably held his hand a minute or two longer than was necessary but looking into his eyes as he spoke, she felt her stomach start to get butterflies. Charles made no attempt to pull his away as he looked into her eyes. She was sure there was a connection for a second or two but was pulled from this reverie by the loudspeaker stating that they were 10 minutes from Kings Cross. Charles pulled his hand away, clearing his throat, moving his briefcase behind his legs and stating "Oh well, nearly time for the daily grind once again" and looked straight ahead of him seeming instantly deep in thought.

Charles was deep in thought, Molly was right. He had only started getting the train to work as normally he would drive into London. He knew it should feel like a lot of hassle driving there but he liked the insular feeling where he had his own thoughts and his own company and could try to relax with no-one nagging and shouting at him which made for an extremely fraught atmosphere at home until his wife commandeered the car every morning as she would never lower herself to take a train she said. Charles had the perfect life on the surface. He had a very good job which paid extremely well, a wife who looked like a model and played the part of the attentive wife, a top of the range sports sports car, a 5 bedroomed new build townhouse in Redbourn (a beautiful chocolate box village 3 miles from Harpdenden) where he would now do his daily commute as his wife mostly commandeered his car and many friends who were well connected in the world of Motorsport as Charles was a Chief Designer for a top international car brand. But his life underneath the surface was anything but perfect. He was born and grew up in the exclusive Royal Crescent area of Bath. His parents were utterly devoted to him and his sister Felicity. Felicity and Charles were very close growing up, whether it was to do with the close and loving family life they had. They attended the most exclusive private schools in the area and both ironically attended Cambridge University. Felicity to study to become a Doctor and Charles always loved anything to do with Motorsport. He loved to draw, even as a young boy, pictures of different types of cars that he would love to drive when he was older. His dream never left him and when he graduated University with Honours, he was lucky enough to be given the opportunity for a scholarship with an up and coming Motorsport company who were looking to make their mark in the world of racing. Charles quickly worked his way up through the ranks due to his hard work, determination, natural leadership, business sense and his passion for what he believed would make the next generation of supercar.

At a work colleague's house warming party, he met and fell in love with Rebecca. She was tall, blonde, extremely confident and very beautiful and a wannabe actress. She seemed very interested in him and he was by admittance very flattered. He had a thought it could be of his material wealth and his position in the world of business that she was interested but he didn't care. She was a stunning feature to have on his arm and they were always commented on at any society party how well they looked together. They were engaged within a year of meeting and married in opulence at a one of the country's top manor houses. They were happy for the first 5 years of marriage (they had been married now for 9 years). Rebecca tried to persue her acting dreams but always preferred the endless parties in London and holidays with her social friends that were always arranged at the last minute which after a while left Charles feeling lonely at times as he thought his wife should only want to be on holiday with him and not her latest BFF's. He would often come in from work excited to show her videos and promos of the latest model of supercar he had designed but she was mostly always out or had a headache and needed to have an early night.

Charles would admit he was fairly soft with his wife and never demanded anything of her but sometimes when she asked him for shopping money every other day, he would ask what else she would need as she had everything but she would have a crying fit and say he was controlling and how dare he ask her anything like that . The move to Redbourn was to try and get away from London life and settle down into more of a country setting where Charles hoped they would maybe try for a baby. They found out they were expecting a baby when they had just moved and both were happy about it. Life settled down for them but unfortunately Rebecca miscarried when she 17 weeks gone. This Charles suspected was the beginning of the end for their marriage as he tried to console her and to try to grieve together but she would push him away and became more closed off to him. He hoped to try for a baby again but Rebecca spent more time in London or at her friend's new home in the South of France.

Charles needed a change to his life but was scared to admitting to having a failing marriage and being another divorce statistic. That was where he was now, living a lonely life, coming home to an empty house most nights, mostly only seeing his wife briefly first thing on a morning or on an evening when she didn't have anyone else to go to a party with and needed his presence.

On this July day, while staring straight ahead looking at someone's newspaper in front of him, he thought of and liked the brief connection he had with apparently a pleasant lady called Molly Dawes. If only he had this every morning instead of a conversation with an irritated Rebecca.

Looking sideways at Charles, she couldn't believe either the casual conversation that had started between the two of them when she didn't normally try to converse too much with anyone. She just thought herself lucky that she had a pleasant journey to work and one that she hoped she would have again sometime soon.

A/N:Thank you for the lovely comments regarding my first chapter. It's so nerve-wracking hoping people will like it. I hope this chapter isn't too long but it kind of wrote itself and I couldn't stop.

Hope you enjoy this chapter.