Okay - there's a little poetic licence here in the sense that I believe six berth sleeper compartments have long disappeared from the British Isles, but, hell, it's my fantasy based on travel abroad, so this technical detail aside, please... enjoy :)
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There was a cock-up with the reservations, which initially, yes, it rather peeved me, but there's such a thing as too spoilt, and it strikes me that there are worse things in life than having to share an overnight sleeper train carriage with two complete strangers. I barely notice them. Just sip on the chai latte I picked up at the station and stare fixedly out of the window and into the black. Love train journeys, me... the headspace, the anonymity, the brief exposure to the lives of others as they gossip, sleep, pull out laptops, whatever...
The elderly lady opposite, she has her head in a novel, anna karenina. Good choice for trains, I think. There's a guy... hmmm, yeah, pleasant enough. Dark, intense, laptop open, plugged into his music... way too young to notice me, which suits.
It's already 8 when we leave kings cross, and by 9 the porter comes in to pull down, make up the beds. I leave then, take my overnight bag and walk down to the buffet; I hear one of my companions following behind me, but with no interest in talking and a slight thirst on me I just walk on, order a sol and a shot of tequila (no point in having to repeatedly go to the bar) and sit down at one of the tables unoccupied by one of the few remaining diners.
At half nine, it feels like midnight. I swill down the shot, shove the lime into the Sol, and take a swig, before just sitting and taptapping on my blackberry, one google search leading to another, and I find myself going from an article on Amarula Cream to liver disease to an std site to a advert for flavoured condoms and finally landing at a page called 'Secrets of a dirty girl: the guide to the perfect blow job'. It's this I'm engrossed in when mr dark intensity sits opposite, after mumbling what I assume is a question about its vacancy in what I now see is an american accent.
It vaguely crosses my mind that he's seen my browsing, but the sol's almost finished, and the tequila was a double, so I don't care. He puts the laptop on the table between us, and we both taptap in harmony. He drinks what looks like strawberry ribena even quicker than I drink mine, and I guess out of politeness when gets gets up for another, he asks if he can get me one. I ask for a sol, but he's seen the other glass, and I guess he's a drinker, because he picks it up, sniffs it and asks if I want another tequila. I do.