Disclaimer:
All characters and events are purely fictional. All characters are at least 18 years of age.
****
"I dream of a great dark man, a real man, enormously strong, enormously virile, whose love I shall win. I know that my dream is doomed to disappointment...The dream is only a dream. There is no great dark man!"
Half past four on a Tuesday afternoon and the doors are about to close when she comes running across the station platform and jumps on, just in time. She hates running, but if she missed this one, she'd have to wait fortyfive minutes for the next train and she'd hate that even more.
Flushed and sweaty, she finds a seat and slumps herself down. There is plenty of space available at this time of day, just after the school rush and just before rush hour. Catching her breath and pushing stray strands of mousey brown hair behind her ears, she rummages in her satchel for her phone and a bottle of water. She untangles her headphones, selects some music and settles in for the journey home.
She stares out of the window as the rows of terraced houses whip passed and tries not to notice her reflection. Her appearance makes her uncomfortable. She avoids looking at herself as much as possible and always faces away from the bathroom mirror when she gets in and out of the shower. Regardless of what frames she chooses, her glasses look odd on her face. Not that it's any better without them. Her nose is too wide and a little wonky, lips too thin and a funny shape. She's chubby and conscious of her fat thighs and podgy belly. On top of that, she can never get her hair to do what she wants, it's always a mess.
Nobody has ever told her this, of course, they're all too polite and wouldn't want to upset her, but she knows it's true. Their compliments are always insincere and embarrassingly forced. You're supposed to tell girls they're pretty, even when they're not and she can tell she's not. She doesn't feel it in the least.
Just as she begins to zone out, lost in the music and monotonous scenery, the door connecting her carriage with the next swings open and slams shut abruptly. She jumps halfway out of her skin and her head instantly spins towards the source of the disturbance.
He
is standing there.
Sharply dressed in an immaculately fitted suit. Three pieces in dark worsted wool, bright white shirt, with starched collar and broad striped tie wrapped around his tremendously thick neck. Nearly the perfect vision of an English gentleman, but his hulking physique and full beard makes him look primal, almost wild. It's as if someone managed to persuade a bear to stay still long enough to be measured by a tailor.
He scans the carriage with the glaring eyes of a predator hunting for prey, rather than a man looking for a place to sit. His features are stern and fixed. His austere expression is impenetrable, giving no hint of emotion or thought. A man like him doesn't act on thoughts, he acts on instinct. You'll never know what he's feeling or if he's even capable of feelings.
She can't help but stare at him, eyes wide and jaw slack. He barely glances at her and doesn't appear to register her presence. His gaze seems to pass straight through her. This comes as no surprise, why would a
man
like him ever notice
something
like her?
He makes a move and she expects him to walk straight passed her, but instead he plants himself directly opposite. She can feel his body hit the seat, although that could just be the movement of the train, she can't be sure.
Suddenly she becomes aware of her ridiculous gawping, closes her mouth and quickly looks away, before he does actually notice her.
"Oh God, why did he have to sit there?" She thinks, as she again becomes aware of her blushing red cheeks and perspiration flecked forehead. She curses herself for looking so dishevelled.
For the next two stops she does her best not to ogle him directly, instead she studies his reflection in the window, occasionally turning her head for a fleeting glance. She takes in every detail of his face. The dense, swarthy hair covering his jaw and around his lips and eyebrows, prominent, ridged nose, furrowed brow and deep, foreboding eyes.
She examines his body too. Solid, round shoulders, obvious even under the padding of his suit coat. The fabric of his trousers pulled tight over muscular thighs. Masculine hands, covered in more dark hair up to his knuckles, escape from stiff, white shirt cuffs around sturdy wrists.
She imagines what he must be like under those clothes. Broad chest, naturally hairy down to a large tuft of pubic hair above a heavy, thick penis. He's not the kind of man to shave or wax and she can tell he's big by the bulge in his trousers.
Beads of sweat form at her temples and her face flushes hotter than ever. Knees clamped together, she squirms slightly in her seat, arousal soaking through her panties. Hands fidget nervously, trying to find something to do, trying desperately not to touch herself.
Never looking up from his newspaper, he barely moves except for his eyes scanning the text and occasionally turning the page. With every breath she gets a whiff of a spicy, woody, almost smokey cologne. A proper man's smell, not some Calvin Klein unisex perfume or Lynx body spray, more suited to teenaged boys.