Chapter 1 Choo Choo
Riley leaned against the closed door just briefly enough to catch her breath again. She had just about made her train. She’d jumped through the doors the very moment they were closing. Her heart was racing.
How could she repeatedly make the same mistake? You’d think Google Maps would give her the right ETA?! It never did. Never!
She briefly shook her head to get that self-critical voice out of her head. After all, it was a reason for joy that she made it. She lightly pushed herself away from the doors, grabbed her small travel suitcase and made her way through the carriage to her compartment.
Who knew trains still had closed compartments? Apparently in Central Europe they did. One more glance at her ticket to make sure it was indeed her compartment, and then she pulled open the sliding doors.
It was almost empty, save for one young guy sitting in the right corner by the window, buried deep into his car magazine. She wondered if more people would still join to fill up the remaining 6 seats.
“Hi there!”, Riley said with a fleeting smile.
As her companion raised his head from his magazine in slight surprise, she realised that he was much younger than she’d thought. Maybe 18 or 19? But that was not what caught her attention most. His eyes were a deep black colour.
Where did he hide his pupils? Did he have any? She was slightly unsettled, as it made it hard to read his look and she’d not come across such a dark eye colour before.
“Hi?”
She almost jumped - or did she actually? - when she heard his almost silent greeting. She must have been staring at him. She zoomed out of his eyes and took in the rest of his face. He had an uncomfortable grin spread right across it. Whoops!
“Sorry, I just zoned out a bit. I almost missed this train. I was running like Usain Bolt to catch it! I mean a very slow and very white Usain Bolt, maybe.”
Pathetic. But she hoped enough to distract her co-traveler from her previous faux-pas.
Riley pushed the handle of her suitcase down, and picked it up to stow it away on the luggage rail above her seat. And then she realised yet again that nothing in this world was built for short people. Or women.
“Damn it!“, she cursed under her breath.
She stretched upwards, stood on her tippy toes and tried to get the suitcase onto the rack. She could feel her top and sweater slide up her torso. It’d have to wait. She was almost there. One more push.
“Hach. Done.”
Riley sighed as the suitcase fell into place. She looked up and noticed her companion gazing at her over the rim of his magazine. Or more precisely at the sliver of her delicate, slim waist that her luggage acrobatics had exposed. She quickly pulled it back down.
“Well, I bet you don’t have to struggle with such things. The world is made by men for men.”
In response she just got a blank stare. Then a mumble. “Ehm. Maybe”.
“Cat got your tongue?“, she asked, annoyed by his near silence.
Why was she in such a chatty, provocative mood? Or did she just want an excuse to hash out what it was about his eyes that fascinated her so much? Either way she sat down right opposite him as he gathered his thoughts.
“No, I … no. Just didn’t think you wanted an answer?“, he replied shyly. Was that a Polish accent?
“Oh well, maybe you’re right. When the day is long, I talk a lot. Happens”, she conceded. “So you were also too cheap to get a sleeper wagon?”
“Erm… I’m a student. So it wasn’t a choice really.” He blushed slightly.
“Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. At least you have a better explanation than me. I just booked too late. And to be fair, I think it’s kinda creepy to sleep in those bunk beds with randos.”
He gave her a faint smile that gave his deep eyes a little twinkle. Then he buried his head back into his magazine.
It’s going to be a long ride with that silent dude there.
Riley settled her handbag down on the seat beside her and took out her own reading material. 50 Shades of Grey. Not the most appropriate literature to read in public, but she had been in a rush leaving home, and that was all she could find. A friend had given it to her for her 27th birthday last month.
“You need to relax a little. Explore yourself. Find a man. Or two. Or a dozen. Experiment”, Kiki had said.
Ha!
The first two she could do. This was part of her trip. Not the way Kiki meant. Not sexually that is. But she was going down memory lane, back to her grandmother’s house to find a piece of herself she’d lost working in the high-fly New York life.
Now the second two, that was harder. Since Matt left her…. Left. That’s what she preferred to say these days as it sounded better than “I found my boyfriend having sex with my intern in my office.” Anwyays, since Matt, there’d been no one. A full drought.
She was longing to be touched again. Some days this desire was driving her nuts. It was almost physically painful. She sighed, a little too loudly maybe, as the guy opposite her briefly lifted his eyes from his magazine. Those damn hypnothising eyes!
Riley finally flipped open her book and started reading. Five minutes in, she was rereading the last 10 pages she’d just read. Somehow she just couldn’t focus. Maybe this time she’d absorb any of it.
Four pages in, she was starting to feel warm, fuzzy, sleepy. She could feel her eyes closing. No, she hated sleeping in public. Maybe if she got up, moved, took off her sweater to feel cooler, she wouldn’t fall asleep. She felt heavy and full of inertia, and couldn’t get her body to move.
Come on, girl. Get it together!
Riley shook her head vigorously to wake up. Then she got up and pulled her sweater over her head. As she put it aside she felt the young guy staring at her.
At her or at her chest? Was she imagining it?
Somehow that thought excited her though. The moment was brief.
So pathetic, Riley! He’s a teenager with raging hormones. You’re NOT a teenager with raging hormones.
But she couldn’t help it.
She followed where his gaze was on her. Yup, definitely her breasts and he was so engrossed he didn’t realise she’d caught him doing the staring this time.
Riley didn’t care much what she looked like really. For all it mattered, she was quite happy with herself. She learned early on though that for others it was hard to overlook her fit, feminine curves.
Right now, her voluptuous breasts were barely contained by her slightly see through white top, and she could see her dark blue lacy bra shine through. She lifted her gaze back at the boy, who was now fully blushing, his face red.
“See something you like?“, Riley asked, cocking her head to the side.
What was she doing?!
She wasn’t quite sure. Somehow it felt that this far from home, in a place no one knew her, she could be anyone. She could be free to “experiment:, as Kiki had said. And to say stupid things. After all, it was going to be a long 10 hour ride.
“I … I’m sorry”, was all her companion could utter. He looked down at the floor, embarrassed.
She grinned at him. The innocence of youth is beautiful. She watched the guy trying very hard to disappear behind his magazine.
“I really don’t mind if you want to look. But now you’ve gotten this intimate with my chest area, maybe you can tell me your name?“, she teased.
“I..“, he muttered from behind the magazine.
“Come on, man”, she encouraged. “I’m Riley.”
She stretched out her hand towards him. He looked carefully over the rim of his magazine, first at her, then at her stretched out hand.
“Don’t leave me hanging here, dude” Riley winked at him.
Reluctantly, he put his magazine to the side and said, “Tomasz…. Or just Tom, I think you Americans say”. Then he shook her hand firmly.
“Well, nice to meet you, Tom.”
She leaned back in her chair, while Tom was looking rather lost.
“So why are you doing this long-ass trip?” she asked casually.
“I want to visit my girlfriend. I study at university abroad”, he replied and she could see him blushing slightly again.
“Girlfriend, huh?” She arched a curious eyebrow at him.
“Yeah.”
Oh, the one word answers! Maddening. Is that what it was like speaking to teenage boys? How to get more out of him? She smirked as an idea formed.
“Mh … do you stare at her breasts like that too?“, she provoked.
Just a little fun. See if he takes the bait. She was in that kind of mood. Playing with fire a little.
He instantly turned red as a tomato. “Erm.. I”, he cast his glance down again. “No.”
“So back to my original question: see anything you like here?“, Riley asked looking herself up and down.
He raised his eyes up to look at her, and just nodded ever so slightly.
“How did you catch your girlfriend being this shy, man?“, she questioned.
“I..we.. we were friends”, he stammered.
“So have you done it with her yet?” Oh shoot, where did that come from? Maybe too much, too soon?
“What do you…“, he started saying and only then her words registered with him, “Oh. No, no.” He shook his head and looked around like he was scouting an escape route. It made Riley smile. Is that evil of her?
“Dude! What base did you get to?“, she asked feigning shock.
“Erm … I… we. We kissed?” The little question mark at the end was just adorable.
“Woooow”, Riley said ironically. “You’ve touched any of these before?”
She squeezed her breast together with her hands lightly. He looked so uncomfortable, but there was that hunger in his deep eyes. A hunger that was pulling her in more and more. She could see his mouth open and close a few times, but no words came out. He just shook his head.
“Tom, you’re what 19? 20 now?”
“19.” That was all she got in response.
“About time you got your hands on a pair of tits, then.” She concluded.
He looked up and mustered her with shy curiosity. She smiled, then looked at her smart watch for effect.
“Okay, let’s see. So we have about 9 hours left for some sex ed, Tom. I’d say that is plenty for an introduction”, she laughed and without hesitation added, “Would you like to touch these?”
Tom stared at her as if she was an alien asking if she could suck out his soul and inhabit his human remains. Or something like that, anyway.
“So?”
