Arya’s never spoken to the cute guy on the train. She and Tall, Dark, and Handsome share a similar commute but the extent of their communication has been a series of eyebrow raises and eye-rolls at the antics of their fellow passengers, mostly because she’s barely awake before her coffee kicks in as she’s walking the final block to work and he always has earbuds in in the evenings.
Everything’s been going wrong today. She forgets her coffee when she leaves that morning and is running too late to go back for it, work is awful, she remembers at the last minute she has to stop at the craft store for ornament supplies for her nieces and nephews, and a sleeting blizzard starts while she is in the shop and she hasn’t worn her good coat, or her scarf, or her hat.
Cold, soaked, and grumpy she manages to catch her train home by a whisper. More crowded than usual, she’s left precariously balanced beside a sour-faced woman who refuses to budge an inch or give up the overhead strap even though she is next to a pole and Arya is not. Tall, Dark, and Handsome, earbud free for the moment, is two steps away, his bicep straining his woolen coat sleeve as he holds on to his own overhead strap when the train gives a sudden jerk that sends her stumbling straight into him. Her bag from the craft store swings up between them as she catches herself against his broad chest, sending a poorly sealed bag of glitter poofing out into a mushroom cloud around them.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome stands there stunned, shimmering in the fluorescent light of the train as Arya apologizes profusely, brushing the golden glitter from the front of his dark coat as best she can. His icy blue eyes catch hers as he grabs her wrist, stilling her now sparkling hands and sending a small zing of electricity through her. “S’fine,” he murmurs.
“It’s really not, I’m so sorry! I’ll pay to get cleaned, I swear!” Arya’s no longer red cheeked from the cold, it’s all embarrassment now. She’s going to be trending on Twitter soon if she keeps trying to brush him down after accidentally glitter-bombing him. @SEunderground #meetugly #craftherpes.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome just grunts slightly at her, shaking his head, “It’s not necessary.”
His warm hand is still wrapped around her wrist, now resting on his chest. “Look,” she says, “I live near the Cassana Plaza station. I can make you some coffee and vacuum off the worst of it. You can’t go around looking like a tree-topper.” No matter how much he looks like an angel, she thinks.
He raises a thick brow at her, sending a few flakes of glitter falling to their still clasped hands. She raises an eyebrow right back. Finally he gives a short nod, and, seeming to realize they’re still touching, releases her hand.
“I’m Gendry, by the way,” he says, quietly.
“Arya. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
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