This Time Next Year(105)

The cab driver stood on the kerb inspecting the blown tyre. He gave a weary groan. ‘Looks like you’d best find another way of getting where you’re going.’

‘What were you saying about bad luck?’ groaned the man.

‘Coincidence,’ said Minnie.

They both stood awkwardly together on the pavement, and a few minutes later the man managed to hail another taxi.

‘Maybe we could—’ Minnie edged toward him hopefully.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t need your bad luck following me round tonight, lady.’

Minnie ran south. She could see the number eighteen bus pulling in ahead, if she could just get on that bus, if there could be no traffic on the roads, she might just make it. She had to try.

‘Wait, wait!’ she cried, willing the bus to pause a moment longer. Thankfully the driver waited and waved her on. He was a broad-shouldered man in his thirties, with a heavy beard and tattoos down both arms.

‘Oh thank you, thank you,’ she said, out of breath as she paid her fare.

‘Always room for one more,’ said the driver in a broad Scottish accent.

Minnie took a seat in the middle of the bus. She was definitely testing the limits of London’s transport network tonight.

The bus contained the usual smorgasbord of London nightlife: an elderly man in a battered duffel coat with a tinsel-collared Jack Russell on his lap, a group of teenage girls all in short skirts, long boots and fake eyelashes, laughing over their phones, and a middle-aged couple having a disagreement about the best route to Covent Garden.

‘Your lucky day,’ said the man with the dog, giving her a wink. He had kind, creased eyes and a pointy face that reminded Minnie of a leprechaun.

‘Sorry?’ Minnie said.

‘Making the bus,’ he said.

‘Oh yes, well I won’t count myself lucky yet, I’m trying to get to Westminster Pier by ten o’clock.’ Perhaps it was the man’s bright, curious eyes, or perhaps it was the adrenaline of making the bus, but she found herself saying more. ‘There’s a man I’m in love with who’s leaving on a boat in thirty minutes.’

What was it about tonight, and oversharing with complete strangers?

The man ruffled his dog’s head. ‘Well that’s a reason to run for a bus if ever I heard one,’ he said. ‘Boris here thinks so too.’

The bus pulled in at the next stop, and the engine went dead.

‘Sorry folks, just pausing for a change of driver,’ came a voice over the tannoy.

Everyone groaned. Minnie jumped up and ran to the front.

‘Sorry, sir, but can you tell me how long that will take, please? It’s just I’m in a real rush.’

‘Aren’t we all luv,’ said a blonde woman in a high-visibility jacket, white shirt and bus driver’s hat. She was holding a clipboard in her hand, and she looked Minnie up and down as she got onto the bus.

‘Oh great, are you the new driver?’ Minnie asked.

‘She needs to get to Westminster Pier to tell a guy she loves him,’ shouted the human leprechaun from further down the bus.

‘Well, we’ll get there when we get there. Move yourself, Hamish,’ said the woman, moving to one side so that the large, bearded Scot could get out of the driver’s seat. Then she called out to the whole bus, ‘The bus will be waiting here for ten minutes to regulate the service on this route. If you are in a hurry, you should get off and catch the bus behind, which will be arriving in seven and a half minutes.’

She gave Minnie a tight grin, flashing a gold tooth, and took her seat in the driver’s cabin. People on the bus groaned and started to disembark.

‘Oh no, can’t we just have an unregulated service tonight?’ Minnie pleaded.

‘Shaylene’s a stickler for the rules,’ said the burly male driver, who was filling in some kind of log on the clipboard.

Minnie decided she would need to appeal to Shaylene’s romantic sensibilities.

‘Look, Shaylene, I’m sure you’ve seen Sleepless in Seattle? You know that bit where Meg Ryan is supposed to meet Tom Hanks at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day? Well, I’m in a situation a bit like that, except instead of the Empire State Building, it’s a party boat, and instead of Tom Hanks, it’s this guy I like, but I have to get there before it leaves at ten. That’s why I’d really appreciate it if, on this one occasion, you didn’t try to regulate the service. It is New Year’s Eve after all,’ she gave Shaylene her most pleading face, clasping her hands together in prayer.

‘You know that saying about how you wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once? You know why that happens?’ Shaylene said, pulling a Snickers bar out of her bag and opening it noisily. ‘Because someone didn’t regulate the service.’ Then through a mouthful of Snickers she added, ‘and I don’t like romcoms.’

‘I love Sleepless in Seattle,’ said Hamish, shaking his head and grinning to himself as he handed the clipboard back to Shaylene.

‘Oh, you’ve seen it?’ Minnie squealed. ‘Then you know what I’m talking about. Oh Hamish, have you ever just had that feeling about someone – that sudden realisation that whatever the risks of getting hurt, whatever the odds of failure, you just have to give it a go? Before I met this guy my expectation of what love could be was like a five. A five! And then with him, when we’re together, it’s like ten – a ten! And maybe I’m scared about having a ten and then losing it and never being happy with a five again, but if there’s a chance for a ten, I’ve got to go for it, right?’