I saw him coming from a long way off. There was something about how he carried himself, the way he seemed comfortable in his suit and tie that set him apart. It was like he knew what he wanted.
I kept peering at him over the top of my book.
“Damn!” I thought. “He fills out those pants quite nicely!”
He paused at the newspaper stand and bought a paper. While I couldn’t hear what they were saying, it was clear he was having a friendly exchange with the newspaper vendor. Something the vendor said made him laugh heartily, and the sound made me smile. By the time he left, the old man selling papers had a big grin on his face.
I could see him looking for a place to sit, but it was rush hour downtown and all the benches were full as people waited impatiently for their buses. I kept glancing at him, admiring what I saw. His gaze flickered across me as he shrugged and pulled out his newspaper and began to read where he stood.
The old lady sitting to the right of me began to cough. She made several disgusting noises, then hawked some phlegm onto the sidewalk. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, her moustache and chin hairs quivering. She began to cough again, then ended her coughing fit with a large belch.
She leaned over toward me. “Do you have any spare change?”
I started to brush her off with a negative answer, but then paused. I chuckled inside. “Oh, sure,” I said. I dug into my purse and pulled out a five dollar bill and handed it to her. Her eyes lit up in surprise and she looked at me.
Her gaze was unwavering. “Thank ‘ee,” she said. “You’ll have good luck today. I see it.”
“Good luck?” I asked. She nodded. Then she put something in my hand. “Here’s a charm for ye. It’ll bring ‘ee good fortune.” I began to protest, but she cut me off. “Ye shouldna try to turn away good luck when it comes to ‘ee.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to her odd comment. “Well, thanks,” I said lamely. She nodded, and just then a bus pulled up to the curb. She got up, and waddled over to the bus, leaving an empty seat next to me. I looked in my hand and frowned. The old woman had given me a tiny crystal heart on a cheap bit of necklace chain. The chain was worthless, but the tiny crystal sparkled in the morning sun.
Someone sat down beside me as I admired the way the crystal caught the light.
“That’s a pretty thing,” a rich, male voice said to my right. I looked up and was surprised to look into the eyes of the man I had been admiring. His gaze was penetrating, and I returned it in full measure. I looked back at the crystal, feeling a light blush on my face. I smiled and looked at him again.
“The old woman who just gave it to me... she said it was for good fortune. She told me I would have good luck today.”
The man’s eyebrow went up. “Really?” he said. He smiled. “That’s funny. That’s what the newspaper vendor told me, that today was my lucky day. Must have been something about my horoscope.”
I smiled at him. “I guess we’re both living a charmed life, then. At least for today.”
He chuckled. I heard a bus coming and turned to look. For a moment I thought it was my bus, and I stood to my feet. The man next to me stood as well. I realized that I had read the number wrong on the bus - that it wasn’t the one I was waiting for. But the man was looking at the bus as it pulled up to the curb.
Impulsively, I said, “That the bus you are waiting for?”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“Well, I guess we are living a charmed life today. It’s on time!” I said, pretending like I had been waiting for this bus all along. I somehow knew I didn’t want to have him get on that bus and disappear out of my life.
He stood aside and allowed me to board the bus first. It was crowded with people coming into town to work, and there was standing room only. I smiled serenely at him, but inside I was laughing hysterically to myself. I had no flippin’ clue where this bus was headed or where I would end up!
I grabbed the overhead strap to have something to hang on to as the bus pulled away from the curb. I could feel him standing next to me, his thigh touching mine as the crowd pressed us closer together.
The bus jerked to a quick stop to let passengers off and on. I stumbled a little, and fell against him from behind.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” I said. I wasn’t very. His thigh had felt firm, and the touch of his leg was stimulating.
He smiled at me over his shoulder. “It’s a little hard to keep your balance when you’re riding the Whiplash Express.”
I laughed at that. He had a mischievous look in his eyes, and I momentarily found myself caught in his gaze. He turned his head once more and faced forward.
I fixed a silly smile on my face and wondered what in heaven’s name I thought I was doing. Here I was, riding a bus to God knew where, with a man I didn’t know, who was probably married and had 2.5 kids and would get off to go work in some anonymous building downtown and whom I’d never see again.
I was so close to him, I could smell the light aroma of the after shave he wore. It made me feel giddy, and I could feel myself getting damp. I allowed the movement of the bus to swing my body closer to his, and for a moment I thought he was backing up slightly to press against me. I wished I was facing the other direction. I wondered if I would be able to see the outline of his cock in his pants.
The bus pulled over again and disgorged more passengers, including the two sitting next to where I stood. I slid into the seat next to the window. I took a breath, deciding that it was time to be brazen. I smiled up at him.
“Would you like to sit with me?” I asked.
He smiled back, and nodded as he sat down. “Thanks,” he said. My gaze flashed across his lap, and I nearly gasped aloud. I could swear I’d seen a bulge there. Maybe it was just extremely wishful thinking.
He put his newspaper down in his lap and calmly looked out the window. We were nearly out of the downtown area, and there were fewer people on the bus. I wondered where he was going.
I fished around for something to say, anything at all. “Looks like we are going to have a nice day,” I said. I cringed inside. ‘Idiot!’ I thought to myself. ‘Is that the best you can come up with?’
“Yeah, I think you are right,” he said. “But I predict that we’ll have a 30% chance of rain by this afternoon.”
“Oh? Really?” I asked. “How do you know.”
He pointed to the newspaper. “Weather forecast.”
I nodded sagely, and tried to think of something clever to say. I made small talk, but it seemed silly and trite to my ears. I wondered when he was going to get off the bus, when my chance to get to know him would be gone forever.
I looked out the window, and noted we were headed into the West Hills. The area of town where the wealthy people lived. I suddenly realized which bus line this was. The line ended at the top of the hill at the public rose gardens that overlooked the city. We were already approaching the outer edges of the park that bordered the gardens. I thought about how foolish it had been to jump on this bus, not even thinking about where it was going. Not to mention the fact that I was late for work. And he was probably some executive who lived in a posh house with a sophisticated wife. He probably rode the bus in a noble effort to reduce pollution and traffic congestion, unlike ordinary people like me who rode it because we couldn’t afford the monthly extortion that the parking garages charge.
As the bus rounded the corner approaching the rose gardens, I rang the bell to get off. It was better to flee now before I humiliated myself by being the last one left when the bus got to the very end of the route at the far side of the park.
He rose to let me out of my seat, and I smiled at him. His eyes were gorgeous. I stepped toward the door, and to my surprise, I noticed he was following behind me. We got off the bus together.
“Do you ride the bus up here often? To the rose gardens, that is,” he asked.
I felt a sense of panic. How could I confess to him that I never took the bus this way, that the only thing that had brought me this direction were his incredible eyes?
“Um... it’s been a while since I’ve been here,” I said. I continued to walk toward the rose garden as if this had been my plan all along. “I just like coming to see the roses when they are in bloom.”
“Me too,” he said. “A coincidence.”
I smiled at him, wondering if I was imagining things. His eyes gazed at me intensely, and a crooked grin gave him a devilish look.
“My name is Mark,” he said.
“I’m Joy,” I replied.
“Joy,” he said, as if my name had a delightful taste. He repeated it. “Joy. It suits you.”
I flushed slightly, not sure what to make of that comment. By now we had reached the first row of roses. It was still early, and from our vantage point we could only one other person in the park - an old man who seemed to not have noticed our arrival.
Mark bent over to smell the rose blooms from the first bush. The roses were a deep red, and the morning dew still clung to the petals.