Our Stop(83)

An offhand comment from Daniel’s housemate prompted him to reach out via Missed Connections – the famous Lonely-Hearts-style section of our newspaper, designed for commuters of TfL to get a second chance at a connection if they don’t have the nerve or opportunity to ask out a commuter crush.

‘He was absolutely right,’ agrees Nadia, beaming, sat next to her unmissed connection as they ride into work together. ‘I don’t think I would have given a bloke cracking on to me at half seven in the morning the time of day. But I am obsessed with Missed Connections – not that he could have known that.’

She pauses to smile at him again. The pair are attentive to their interviewer, but constantly look to the other to share their attention, making it clear they are a firm partnership.

‘My best friend and I would send each other our favourite adverts sometimes, but then one day she sent one and said it sounded like me. I couldn’t believe it! It suddenly made my mornings so much more interesting!’

She wasn’t 100 per cent convinced it was meant for her at first, though:

‘It said something about being on the last carriage of the Northern line tube that goes through Angel at 7.30, and that’s the one I try to catch, but I thought lots of women must! It was my best friend who sent back the first response to him.’

‘Nadia’s best friend Emma definitely deserves to take a lot of the credit for this, then,’ Daniel says, bumping his shoulder against Nadia’s in a display of what is obviously an established joke between them. ‘Because from then on, throughout the summer we’d send notes back and forth, in the newspaper – which feels odd to say, but it didn’t feel odd. It felt fun and exciting, although also a bit like having your private Tinder messages read by half of London.’

And half of London did, indeed, read them: the hashtag #OurStop trended on Twitter, with invested fellow commuters desperate to see the pair finally meet.

‘But then he stood me up for our first date,’ deadpans Nadia, before laughing at Daniel cradling his head in his hands, obviously mortified. Nadia continues: ‘When we’d finally arranged to meet up, he had a family emergency and left me waiting for him at the bar. I was furious!’

Furious she might have been, but Nadia was, in spite of herself, also determined to know who the author of her letters was. ‘Even though it killed me to admit it,’ she adds.

‘In the meantime I dated, but I always wondered if he was still on my tube carriage sometimes. I wanted to at least get a look at the guy with enough imagination to write me letters in the bloody paper.’

But a chance meeting at London’s Secret Cinema saw them meet face to face for the first time.

‘And not long after that, it was officially love,’ says Daniel, with Nadia tipping her head up towards him for a peck on the lips. They’re easy in each other’s company, and very openly affectionate.

That was six months ago. ‘But we’re in no rush,’ says Nadia. ‘Daniel just moved down the road from me, so we see each other a lot, but we’re happy to make sure this all unfolds naturally. We both know falling in love isn’t a happy ending – it’s just the beginning.’

Just the beginning is a theme for them, then, as they join forces for their new charity venture, Future Connections – a play on their own connection, and their love for shaping the work culture in their industries of technology and engineering.

‘It’s about training people who would normally get left behind by the tech revolution,’ explains Daniel.

‘I work in AI,’ says Nadia, ‘and, shamefully, build robots making people technically unemployed. This is my way of giving back.’

Daniel is quick to leap to his girlfriend’s defence. ‘Not that she shouldn’t be doing that: lots of jobs are done better by robots. But people always come first, and with our training programme they can hopefully gain skills and opportunities to develop.’

‘Our biggest focus is getting older people into STEM, and even more women too.’

Launching tomorrow, anyone is able to apply for the month-long programmes, which take the form of downloadable modules, meaning students can work at their own pace.

‘And then they can stop by the studio on a weekend for real-life demonstrations and advice,’ says Daniel, referencing their Newington Green office area, paid for through a donation from Nadia’s employer RAINFOREST.

‘There’s no judgement or expectation of what anybody “should” know,’ adds Nadia. ‘We just want to help. And we’re so proud that we can do that together.’

As we pull up to London Bridge tube station, Nadia whispers to Daniel, ‘Babe, it’s our stop.’

The pair say their thank yous and goodbyes, and walk out into their Future Connection, together.





Acknowledgements


Thank you to:

Ella Kahn, Phoebe Morgan, Katie Loughnane, Sabah Khan, Bella Bosworth and Cherie Chapman – what a dream team of women without whom this book would quite literally not exist.

And.

My family, who told me I could do this all along and reminded me when I forgot. I am living out my dream so that I might do your faith in me justice.





About the Author


Laura Jane Williams is a writer whose work has appeared everywhere from the Guardian to Buzzfeed, Stylist, Closer, the Metro and the Telegraph. She is Grazia’s former dating columnist, and the author of two previous works of non-fiction: Ice Cream for Breakfast and Becoming. Our Stop is her first novel.