It had been a terrible weekend, the weather, which was supposed to have been wonderful, had been overcast and really depressing. It had got really cold, which here in Spain is not normal, even for the end of September. But more than just the weather, things really hadn't worked out. I had planned a sort of fun romantic weekend with Sylvia, a weekend that would have... should have led us to more than the friendship we had been enjoying up till then.
She had come down from Saragossa, where she studies journalism, to stay the weekend with me. We had met there when I had attended a conference and coincided with her. At the conference we had hit it off immediately and had had a lot of fun. The conference had been a bit of a drag but she had volunteered to show me the fun side of Saragossa. Now she had come to Barcelona to allow me to return the favour, but the foul weather and other things had really cast a shadow over the whole weekend.
Finally on the Sunday afternoon I had gone with her to Sants station by Metro to put her on the train back home. We were waiting in the station, both of us quiet and a little down.
There weren't too many people about and we had about twenty minutes before her train came in. I remember she was dressed in some dungarees, quite loose on her small frame, with a sweatshirt underneath. She had a sort of Indian silk scarf wound up in her hair and some nice elaborate drop earrings. But all of this was hidden under a large, heavy, military type coat, oh yes, she also had big heavy military type black boots.
Her hippy type image belied her slight, delicate body and her beautifully perfect face, but she liked deceiving people that way. At that time I was also into the same sort of thing and I was wearing a long, deep red, cotton skirt with beadwork and tassels on the bottom hem, together with a cotton shirt and a rough jacket under a long hippy type coat.
My long blonde hair was fastened up with a couple of paintbrushes, I remember. We were very typical student types.
Sitting on the bench there in the station wrapped in my jacket and my thoughts, I could feel her next to me, pressing up against me. Our thighs, arms and shoulders touching. The platforms at Sants are underground and we only had the harsh neon lights to illuminate the cold darkness. Time crept on.
Finally on the board it said the train would arrive in five minutes. I sighed heavily. She heard me and asked what was wrong; I hardly knew where to begin. How can you explain that nothing had gone right and nothing about the weekend had lent itself to the plans I had had for seduction and passion? I said nothing, but sighed again.
She insisted. "What's the matter?"
Finally I told her that I had wanted it to be different, to be memorable, fun, like it had been in Saragossa. She was really nice and said she had had a great time anyway and we could always try again. I was sitting on the bench with my legs pulled up in front of me, my knees pulled up against my chest. She turned towards me and seemed to want to insist on the conversation.
"I wanted it to be different too, you know," she said. "I wanted to talk to you about so many things and never found the moment."
"You did?" I answered.
At that moment the train thundered into the station from out of the dark, obliterating all talk. We got up and she got her bags. We headed over to the nearest door and opened it. She heaved her bags into the train and got up onto the lowest step. She turned to me, doubt written all over her face. She was chewing her lower lip when she leaned down and almost shouted.
"If I had had the chance to talk to you I would have told you just how much you excite me."
"How much what?" I shouted back.
"How much you excite me!" she said again.
"How much I desire you."
The train lurched and started moving. I could hardly believe what she had just told me. I started pacing alongside the train, keeping pace with it. Her eyes were riveted on me.
"Please don't be angry or offended," she said.
"What? Angry? Are you kidding? That is just what I have wanted to tell you all weekend."
Her anxious expression dissolved, a big grin spreading across her face.
"You too? God what fools we are."
The train was gathering pace and I was almost running; a guard started waving at me. Sylvia was smiling at me idiotically, then suddenly she reached down and pulled me up into the train with her. She fell backwards with me on top of her.
"I am not going to waste any more time," she said emphatically.
Behind us the guard slammed the door shut as the train passed him, we had to lift our legs out of the way to avoid it.
We picked ourselves up off the floor just as the train emerged from the darkness of the station into the dull light of a rainy Barcelona afternoon. Rain started lashing the windows of the carriage. On our feet now, I asked her quickly.
"So I excite you, is that true?"