He woke up late, cut himself shaving and burnt his toast. On the way to the station he tripped on a kerb and fell, while other commuters rushed on either side of him, in too much of a rush to stop and laugh let alone help him up.
Worst of all he'd run out of coffee at home without realising it. Carl Hurst was having a stereotypically bad morning.
At the station he found that he'd somehow got himself there ten minutes before his train was due to leave. So he joined the queue of slouching addicts at the one coffee booth on the concourse, each and every one of them still rubbing their red-rimmed eyes or badly-shaven jaws. Carl yawned, contemplated his gut and tried to remember what he had to do at work today. Nothing interesting.
The coffee took longer to obtain than he thought, so he found himself half-running, trying not to spill his coffee, through the station to get to his platform. The double-cupped beverage seemed to be burning its way out through the sides where he held it, and when he wasn't concentration the scalding liquid seeped out of the plastic cap and seared his fingers. Shit, which platform was it?
Then he dropped the coffee.
- - -
Carl thought, for the millionth time, that living three stops from the train terminus and ten from the city centre was probably the worst possible place to live. The seats had already filled up, so every day he had to stand, but there was still a forty five minute journey ahead of him that he had to stay rocking on his aching legs for. And when a seat became available he couldn't bring himself to take it - there was always some elderly lady to smile at and wave into it. No of course I don't mind you old bag, take a load off!
And every day as more and more people piled onto the train at every stop he would get pushed further and further along the carriage, getting crushed against the door at the end that led to the next car.
So it was today, that after only two stops he found that he had been shuffled all the way to the end, so that his shoulder was resting against the corner of the carriage doorway. At least he wouldn't have to hang ape-like from the dangling handles - he could rest his weight against the rounded fibreglass wall of the train and relax a little more that way.
Glancing around he took the contents of the car in briefly. Suits, suits and more suits. Men and women, young and old; no one he recognised, no one from his office. A sea of faces, heads, arms and shoulders. Carl wasn't all that tall so he had no kind of vantage point, and the occupants lucky enough to get a seat were completely invisible to him. God, it was even busier today than normal.
He turned his back to the carriage and leaned against the shallow doorframe, looking out of the window into the next carriage. Things there were no better, but at least the girl in the doorway opposite him had space to get her book out of her bag. He had a book but getting it out would involve elbows and shoving and he was just too polite.
He risked spending a few moments looking at the young woman facing him, only a few feet away, but lost in her book and completely oblivious to his existence. If they'd been right next to each other it would probably be the same though - she was so pretty and he... well he was just a nerdy-looking loser, getting paunchier every month.
He watched as she licked her finger, a totally unselfconscious movement, and used the wet tip to turn the page of her book. Her mousy hair was tied up in a knot at the back of her head and she was wearing a long, stylish, fitted houndstooth coat that accentuated her slim frame. Carl sighed - another ideal girlfriend that he had no chance with at all.
At the next station, incredibly, more people forced their way on and Carl, fighting to keep enough room to breathe, felt bodies and elbows and shoulders pushing against him until the doors bleeped closed and he found himself well and truly sardined.
Oh this was going to be a joy.
It was just after this happy thought that he felt the body behind him shift, and the pressure of two soft shapes being squashed against his back. For a moment he didn't think anything of it, but then with a start he realised what was happening. Some poor woman was being forced by the crush to come up right behind him - she was probably as utterly trapped as he was. And her breasts - and now by the feel of it most of her body - was being forced into him.
Carl blushed, he was a typically geeky guy and close, personal dealings with members of the opposite sex put him on edge, no matter how inadvertent or accidental they may be. He found himself paralysed by a spiralling nightmare scenario in which the woman behind him thought he was a depraved monster, grinding himself against her. She screamed, the other passengers restrained him and he was dragged from the train by the cops at the next station.
It was unlikely, but this was still more than a little awkward. He shifted forward - as close to the door as he could while still retaining enough room to breathe and not feel like he was going to die - but of course that didn't work. The population of the carriage took the extra few inches he'd found and expanded to fill it. The woman ended up pinned against him even harder.
She seemed to be about his height, a little shorter perhaps and even with the other people pressed around him - a large, grey haired gent was leaning on his arm slightly and partially pinning him to the wall - she seemed to be very, very tightly pressed to him. He could feel her right thigh too, hard and hot against the back of his right leg. The mass of humanity shifted, and for a moment she was almost spooning him, her pelvis thrust forward against his ass, her breasts squashed even harder against his back. He had to say something.
He craned his neck to the right, trying to see over his shoulder, to catch her eye and apologise, but he couldn't see her. Just a hundred red, sweating, fuming faces, trapped in this human cattle-car with him. Shoulders and necks and arms, but he couldn't turn enough to see his... his 'dance partner'.
He turned the other way, peering over his left shoulder, but his field of vision there was much more limited, mostly filled by the doorframe he was squashed into. But this side he could see, at the very edge of his vision, a slight blur of red hair - the woman! Maybe she was leaning her head that way slightly. Carl decided to risk it.
"Ah, excuse me. Sorry about the... um... pushing. Pushing into you, I mean - I'm not trying to push... it's just... ah..." Carl was rarely eloquent, but his apology was plumbing new depths. It was greeted by silence, and he guessed that either she hadn't heard, or that she was so mortified by the whole thing that she had nothing to say. He turned back to the window and looked at the faint reflection of his blushing face, embarrassment written in bold all over it.
"Oh, that's ok," the sudden response would have made him jump, were he not being pinned side on against the door frame. The sentence was expressed so close to his left ear, and so softly, that it must have been audible only to him. "It's not your fault, after all." Carl blushed, with relief this time, and smiled. The voice was young, but low and slightly hoarse. When he turned his head again, he caught the scent of some flavoured tobacco, but the face of the girl remained tantalisingly out of sight.
"Thanks," he said, not trusting him to say anything else without making a complete fool of himself.
"No, thank you!" the voice rose slightly into a purr of amusement and Carl felt its owner shift against him. Woah! She was hard against him now, there was barely an inch of his back that the heat of her body was not pressed against. From the soft curve of her breasts, to the firm bone of her pelvis - it felt like she was going to burn through the thin material of Carl's shirt and suit. The train was hot, but she was hotter. Thank him? Why?