An Awkward ride

Hannah budged away from the stranger on the bus as much as she was able to. How rude was he?! Her thoughts read - there were so many other seats on the bus, and he had put his hand on her knee. It must have been by accident. This was appallingly embarrassing!

Zeke shuffled himself over so that the girl was against him once more. He saw her looking around her out of embarrassment, mortified that anyone might see any commotion, then she discretely slipped her hand down her leg and pushed his off her knee.

Zeke allowed his hand to be dislodged but after a moment put it back on and gripped it firmly. With his other hand, he held Hannah's thought bubble in front of him and read her thoughts as they flashed past. Omg. I hope no-one sees this. This is so embarrassing! Maybe if I just ignore him...he will leave me alone before anyone notices.

This time Zeke resisted her attempts to dislodge his hand. Hannah looked out of the window mortified, hoping that no-one was noticing this. Zeke took his hand off of her knee again. Thank goodness. read her thoughts. If anyone had seen that, I'd have been so embarrassed I think I would have died. Wait, what is he doing now? Oh hell no, he's not. He can't be. He's putting his arms around my shoulders. Who does he think he is? I should object. I should say something, but... what if someone hears. How embarrassing. Oh no, I don't believe it. He... he's actually sliding his hand down my front. He... he's holding onto my tit! I'm going to say something. NO I'M NOT - THAT WOULD BE TOO EMBARRASSING! I WON'T DO ANYTHING I'LL JUST ACT AS IF NOTHING IS HAPPENING!

Zeke had just finished adding the last sentence to her thoughts, over-riding everything else and was quite pleased with himself, when his phone beeped loudly in his pocket. What the hell? Another message. What crappy timing. With a sigh, he let the girl's thought bubble go and it floated up above her head, full of indignation but with over-riding embarrassment and fished his phone out.

He looked at the last message. It was a second one from Niamh. He clicked it open. "Sir, I'm sorry to keep disturbing you, but Ariel is resigning. She wanted to talk to you first to apologize. I think she has sent you a message too. She was asking for you."

Oh fuck.

Zeke needed to get back to work pronto. He figured if he got off the bus at the next stop he could be there within 15 minutes. He took a forlorn look at the beautiful girl whose breast he was in the process of groping and sighed. Before getting up, he quickly snatched at her thought bubble and wrote. "I should give him my number and hope he calls me. I'd love to go on a date with him".

Zeke waited till she reached into her purse and brought out an old receipt and proceeded to write her phone number down on it then turned to him holding out the piece of paper to him. "Look, I know we just met, but, if you'd like to call me sometime... "

Zeke cut her off and snatched the receipt and said "Yeah sure. Maybe. Seeya" and trotted off down the aisle to get off the bus, pocketing the receipt for later use. Maybe at a time when he hadn't already fucked two people that day.

What the hell was he going to say to Ariel? he thought and tried to put his gorgeous auburn co-traveler out of his mind for now.