chapter.two.

In that Joel and Lilia felt left hanging, the next chapter to this morning's post...

Monday Evening on the 379
I gave the product manager the rundown of where things were at and "next steps" at 4:59pm and left to catch the 5:10pm shuttle to Mountain View station. Lighting a cigarette as I stepped out of the semi-permanent temporary offices, the grin on my face tore straight through and I wondered if the woman with the hypnotic eyes had had a similar day, dealing with work, toying with thoughts of the morning commute, hoping her subtlety of "I take the 5:45 train home" had caught.

Shelley dropped us off at 5:31pm, six minutes before the next Baby Bullet to SF, 27 minutes before when the 5:45 out of San Jose would stop at Mountain View. Lighting another cigarette I laughed to myself and happily let the 373 blow by, took my time smoking it, and meandered over to the northbound platform at Mountain View. I stopped at a position that would allow me to get on the first car, hoping that the mention of the 5:45 from San Jose was a flirtatious gesture, and that I'd see her and we'd talk on the way back to the City and I'd either ask her out for a drink or at least get her name.

The train arrived 2 minutes early; I got on at the most northward car, and proceeded to walk through - girl on cellphone, guy with far too many bags, couple headed to the Giants' game, nothing. Next car, same story, all the way through five cars to the back of the train.

Taking a seat in the last car of the train, I took out the morning's unfinished crossword. Until that point I'd been in a better mood all day than I'd been in a long time. While the couple in front of me played with their season's tickets and worried about the train getting them to PacBell in time for the opening pitch, I finished the adjoining Cryptoquip and kicked myself for hoping that she'd sit in the same seat tomorrow morning.