This is a side story I wrote could be something more or just a one time coupling, I'll take your input once you've read it.
Edited by HJF
*
It had been another typical Friday evening on the train for Jeremy and he was glad to see the week at last come to an end, not to mention he was looking forward to meeting with his buddies once this infernal train finally reached his stop.
"Only six stops to go," he reminded himself as both time and the train seemed to crawl along. The train was better than driving from his far suburb to the city and back each day. He knew it was far faster too, but still some days that hour seemed so much longer, and this was one of them.
He looked longingly up at the full seats on the upper deck from the lower deck seat he had begrudgingly taken. He usually rode up there mostly because it, surprisingly to most he was sure, allowed him more space than the lower deck benches did. Jeremy was a very tall guy and cramming himself into a lower deck seat for an hour was not his idea of fun, nor was it adding to his mood.
He continued looking longingly up at those seats as the train slowed to a halt again, driving his knees into the bench in front of him. As he silently cursed it he saw commotion above as young woman scrambled to leave the train, her stop seemingly having snuck up on her. Jeremy smiled; he knew why she was in such a rush. He had noticed her napping a bit in her seat he suspected if not for the jolt of the train she would have missed her stop completely.
The door opened and passengers filed out. Jeremy looked back at the upper row as it recovered from the commotion to see how many others had gotten off up there and whether he should ponder heading up. No luck, but it was then he spotted it; right where the young lady had been sitting was clipped a monthly pass. A pass he remembered seeing her put there.
Having once lost one of those before he sprang to action and pulled it off the clip. He flipped it over hoping it had a name and number so the conductor could get it back to her. No luck, so, seeing the passengers still filing out, he made a flash decision and quickly made his way toward the exit. Pushing through the vestibule door and down the stairs to the platform he frantically searched for the woman.
Now ordinarily this would have been extremely reckless as finding one person in the crowd that got off at this stop would have been near on impossible except that, though he tried not to admit it, he had been admiring this particular passenger since the train had left Chicago. That was how he knew she had placed the pass on the clip and it was also why he was sure he could find her in this crowd.
The biggest thing working in his favor was height, both his, being nearly seven feet tall it made it easy to find people, and hers, as he was sure she had to be close to if not taller than six feet herself. It did not take long before he found the mane of light brown hair hovering above the crowd. He made his way towards her, hoping to reach her before she reached her car.
His hopes of getting back onto the train were long gone after he had seen the crowd and had heard the chimes that signaled the doors were closing. As the crowd reached the parking lot it fanned out and Jeremy was able to speed up, but unfortunately so had his quarry. Both had long legs and he could tell she was in a hurry. Still, slowed by the crowd Jeremy watched her get farther away and just hoped he didn't lose her, otherwise this gesture would not only be incredibly stupid, but incredibly useless as well.
He was pleased to see that she walked past the parking lot and kept walking toward some nearby apartment buildings.
"A walker," he thought to himself. Fortune, it seemed, had smiled on him. She was still moving quickly, but knowing he had more time Jeremy waited to clear the crowd before putting on speed to catch up to her. As he quickened his pursuit of her a small part of his brain acknowledged that this might make the woman nervous if she were paying attention. After all he was a strange man, this certainly was not his stop, and now he seemed to be deliberately following her, which he was of course. Not for any sinister reason, but she had no way of knowing that. This was where being a big guy worked against him; in a lot of cases it kept him out of fights he didn't want, but it also made him unnecessarily scary to strangers.
"You take the good with the bad," he thought. He reminded himself of every time his size put him in a bad spot, as it did with surprising frequency. However, his query was no five-foot-nothing-ninety-pound gymnast. She was definitely over six feet tall and was definitely not overly thin. She wasn't overweight either, but she had a happy medium working. She was a big girl and he could tell she could take care of herself.
Still afraid of losing her he sped up, but tried not to look too creepy.
"Yeah, like I know how to not be creepy," he thought to himself and he was deep into an inner discussion of how he could not be creepy when the woman, to his extreme surprise, turned to face him.
"What do you want?!" she asked in frustration, as lost in his thoughts he had not noticed she had slowed and he had nearly caught up to her. "It's obviously not to rob or rape me or something or you would have done it already! And please don't tell me you live around here because you don't, I know my neighbors and you ain't one buddy. You've been following me since the train and don't think I didn't catch you looking at me on the train. I admit it was flattering, but this is getting creepy. I've had a hell of a day, an even worse week, and things don't look much better for the next few," she said, looking extremely irritated.
Jeremy digested the information and gathering his thoughts, held up her train pass and said, "You, ah, left this on the train. Sorry to bother you it looks like you've had a rough week. It's just I've misplaced one of those myself and I know what a hassle they can be to replace. So here," He handed her the pass and said, "I'll be heading back to the station now as, you're right, this wasn't my stop, I'm another five or six down the line depending on the train."
"Well that was mighty stupid of you," she said bluntly before he could finish and Jeremy just shrugged and went to make his way back to the station when she grabbed his hand, "I'm sorry," she said in a much kinder tone. "That was rude of me, thank you very much, that was really nice of you. It really has been a rough week. It's funny; you spend enough time getting dirt kicked in your face you almost forget what kindness is." She then seemed to take him in. Afterwards she seemed to get an idea and smiled. "You got any plans tonight?"
"Not really, and if I did, my now several hour commute wiped any hope of getting to them. Why do you ask?"
"Sorry about that," she said, very sincerely and looking a bit remorseful, before answering his question, "Well, because I'd like to take you to dinner, to say thanks I mean," she said, adding the last part a little too quickly, and held up the pass to show why. She then added, "There's this nice new place I've been dying to try, but I've never had the time or anyone to go with."
He smiled, "That'd be nice, thanks." He then asked, "This is going to sound odd but do you mind if we stop by your place first if it's nearby? I really don't want to take my work bag into a restaurant if I can help it, especially if it's a nice place," Jeremy said pointing to the bag he had somehow remembered to grab before sprinting off the train.
"Actually that sounds like a good idea. I want to change a bit too, if you don't mind."
"Not at all, but I think you look fine as you are," he said, commenting on the skirt and short sleeve top she wore.
She gave an eye roll that clearly said a sarcastic 'men' and said, "You're sweet but these are my work clothes. I need to get in something a bit more comfortable. They walked the short distance to her building but she stopped him at her door.
