Trains and Bookshops

I swing back and forth with Miss Waterstone's. Having been nonplussed by our last half-meeting - when I'd picked up the book that she recommended, only to be served by someone else - I didn't much care whether I did or didn't bump into her as I went to collect some presents for my family. Again, I was served at the till adjacent to hers. This time though, I noticed her checking out the books that I was buying. A Keith Richards biography, unofficial, for my dad, and Black Swan Green for my mum. She noticed I'd noticed her noticing, and she blushed. Back on? We'll see.

At Piccadilly, waiting for the train home, I met Rachael. She's a Rock and Pop Writer (verbatim from her business card) who lives in Sheffield, studied in Manchester, and works between the two cities as a freelancer. She's good-looking, intelligent, and she likes cool music. She writes words down in her notebook that she wants to look up and use. We had a wonderful chat all the way to Sheffield, and then she gave me her business card on the platform at Sheffield. I hope I see her again.

As I waited for my change at Leicester, I noticed a cute girl in a patterned top. She sat in my carriage. I got on with reading my book. At Wellingborough, as I was waiting to get off the train, she stood next to me by the door. As we both got off on the southbound platform, I wondered what she was listening to on her walkman. I had 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' by the Smiths. She walked up the stairs ahead of me, and I noticed she had a sticker on her back, a barcode or something. I jogged ahead, and tapped her on the shoulder. "You've got a sticker on your back," I said, showing her the sticker that I'd removed. "I'd hate for you to look silly," I said, and smiled. She blushed, smiled, and walked off. I stopped in my tracks and watched her walk down the stairs. I realised that I could have concealed the sticker on my hand, and then tapped her on the shoulder, and fed her the same line, and she'd have never doubted my authenticity. I felt like Wayne in Wayne's World 2, when he says that something we learn early on might be important later in the plot of the movie, like the movement of the glass-carrying men. I wonder if the sticker trick will come up later in my life.