Eliza Starts a Rumor(34)
Jackie took the phone back, shoved it in his pocket, and buried his face in the daily crossword puzzle. Skip was not letting it go. He looked at Lee, who smirked while giving him the thumbs-up. Before Jackie could beg for mercy, Skip was out of his seat.
“Ladies, please, my friend and I are happy to give up our seats for you.”
“No, thank you,” Alison retorted, as if the offer was insulting and absurd.
“I insist,” Skip countered.
“We’re good, thanks,” Alison insisted back, confident she was putting it to rest.
But Olivia was not good. The Moscow mules had gone to her head while her Ferragamo mules were digging into her feet. Her breasts were engorged like cantaloupes and she kept flashing back to how she had begun the day—vomiting into a trashcan. She needed to sit and she didn’t care if it went against Alison’s old-school feminist protocol. She shot her friend a look of self-pity and accepted the kind offer.
“Thank you. You are too kind.”
Skip brought them over to his seat and Jackie immediately rose to thwart his plan by volunteering to switch. Skip pushed him back down with his right hand while motioning to Lee to get up with his left. It was quite the smooth maneuver, and if Jackie weren’t so pissed, he would have been impressed. The two women sat, Olivia next to Jackie and Alison across from him.
One look at her up close and he forgot to be angry with his friends. He watched as she adjusted her long legs and tucked an errant strand of her black silky hair behind her ear just for it to fall back out again a second later. He imagined it was a common occurrence. He pictured himself in her company, tucking it back for her. He blushed and smiled.
Alison was set not to give any of the chivalrous men the time of day, but when the one across from her flashed a sexy, almost nervous smile, she couldn’t help but notice his deep brown eyes and angular jaw, and smile back. Both on the tall side, Alison and Jackie adjusted and readjusted their legs to give each other space but at last they gave up, their knees slightly resting against each other’s. Alison relished that weird sensation of touching a stranger while Jackie played over his previous online interactions in his head with the woman whose knees were now intimate with his. He looked down at the crossword, reading the same clue over and over again, painfully aware of the opportunity in front of him.
Within minutes Olivia, exhausted from trauma and alcohol, nodded off. A few head drops later, and she unconsciously landed on Jackie’s shoulder. Alison held back a laugh as she leaned over Olivia to straighten her head. Within seconds it dropped right back on Jackie’s shoulder. Her laugh escaped.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll move her.”
Jackie, who knew what poor Olivia was going through, stopped her.
“Don’t worry about it. I fall asleep on this train all the time, and it looks like she’s had a hard day.”
“She has. Thanks.”
Jackie looked down at the stranger resting on his shoulder, and he and Alison shared another smile. He looked up to see Lee and Skip making foolish motions to him. He shot them a death look. They didn’t care. He stared out the window to discourage them from any further shenanigans as the train passed the Columbia University stadium, sped through a tunnel, and emerged in the beauty of the Palisades. He was usually content to gaze out the window watching the changing leaves on the tree-topped cliffs or the occasional sailboat gliding up or down the Hudson depending on the tide. Sometimes his thoughts would wander to the houses cut into the rocky cliffs, wondering who lives there and if they ever stare out at the passing trains in the distance and wonder about him. But not today. Today he was trying to come up with something witty to say to his seatmate. Quite proficient in reading upside down, Alison beat him to it.
“Thirty-two across, Russian peasant is ‘muzhik’—M-U-Z-H-I-K.”
Jackie smiled. “Thanks!” They bumped knees again and Jackie apologized.
“Sorry, long legs and packed trains don’t mix.”
“Is this train always this crowded?”
“It can be. But I have it down to a science. I know exactly where to stand so that I match up with the doors to this car no matter which track the train is on,” he said with pride, followed quickly by embarrassment upon realizing the nerdiness of his comment. She quickly negated his fears.
“That’s brilliant. If I ever decide to commute, I’m going to find you for a tutorial.”
That was it. Her interest in efficiency trumped even her black silky hair. Jackie was real-life smitten. He thought about impressing her further with his commuting prowess, letting her know that there are four bridges, two marinas, and two tunnels between here and his stop and that he’s timed them all out so that he never has to look at his watch—but decided against it. He went with a question instead.
“What do you do?” he asked, already knowing.
“I’m a criminal attorney in the city, but I’m on extended maternity leave—trying out the suburbs for a bit.”
“That’s nice. My daughter wants to be an attorney. Well, this week at least. How do you like the suburbs so far?”
“I like it, for now. I love the peace and quiet. And I feel like I’m bonding with my baby without a hundred things pulling me away from him. But I’m pretty sure it’s temporary.”
Jackie considered asking about her husband, to indicate that he was interested in her. For a successful, good-looking, single guy he was surprisingly inept at picking up women. He knew that’s the way it was often done in the movies, but it felt too dishonest since he knew the answer. He was happy when she went for that line of questioning herself.