Ana:

They say you shouldn't hate the very thing you're depending on—like I was depending on the subway just to get from point A to B. But when you're living in New York, I feel one should have the right to hate that dark, dingy, stuffy, overcrowded, creepy cart on rails.

Trying to balance my coffee cup between my thighs while sitting squished between the window and a fat, snoring old man, I took a bite of my Starbucks turkey bacon sandwich—most mornings I make my own breakfast but today I overslept after working till past midnight on my cartoon caricatures. No, I wasn't a cartoonist, I just wanted to be one and get recognized by Darrell Reiley, the youngest legendary director of Hi-Screen Studios where cartoons are born. But right now, waiting on tables and serving rich hungry patrons paid my bills. It's what single girls who are still waiting for their true love to show up do.

So now, I'm squeezing in my breakfast on the subway on this mundane morning and regretting it big time—it was nauseating trying to eat in a jerky, moving vehicle that smelled like it hadn't been cleaned since nineteen-twenty.

Things can't possibly get worse, right?

Turns out, it can. I saw a mother and a three-year-old child enter the train and my conscience wouldn't leave me in peace. Holding my sandwich in one hand and half-drunk coffee in the other, I stood up, precariously balancing myself in the moving vehicle as I offered the woman my seat. Nodding gratefully with tired eyes, she took it, securing her little one on her lap. The old man next to her didn't even wake up, he just gave an extra large snort in his sleep, making the kid giggle. I smiled. One act of kindness was worth it. Now to just make it to a pole before—

FEEEP!

Too late. The train had arrived at its next stop and I was thrown backward off my feet as I hadn't gotten the chance to hold on to something.

"Ahh!" I gasped, stumbling along off-balance, terrified of dropping my coffee on someone's head. But instead, my butt fell on something soft and I suddenly found myself seated on a handsome stranger's lap. He gave a grunt as I fell on him, he must've been startled.

"Er..." I blinked at him and he smiled at me.

"That's quite a circus act you've got going on there," he commented. I grinned nervously.

"Sorry, I don't think trapeze is my thing." I went along with his joke and he laughed widely, like a little ray of sunshine that bent itself in through a crevice of this dark subway tunnel. He had gorgeous brown eyes, straight milk chocolate-colored hair, and that type of smile you'd find in a hunky guy's toothpaste ad. No wonder I was mesmerized for a moment.

"So, do you always practice a tightrope walk along a subway early in the morning?" The stranger continued good-naturedly.

"No, usually I'm the meat between this—subway sandwich," I said with a smug face, and he chuckled again.

"Ah. well then, might I offer you a less meaty seat?" He offered a space next to himself for me to sit. That's when I reddened as I realized I was still plonked on his lap. I jerked up at once.

"Oh, yes, thanks a bunch." Balancing my food and drink extra carefully so that it wouldn't fall on this kind stranger, I took the seat next to him in relief.

"Thanks for the seat," I said again, "I don't usually make it a habit to fall on passengers."

"You can fall on me anytime," I heard him mutter, and my eyelids fluttered. That sounded like a pickup line! But no, it couldn't be. Hot guys who take the subway don't throw pickup lines at little old me...

"I don't have much on me but do you accept payments in food?" I offered half my sandwich and coffee to him in return for the seat, trying not to think about the possibility that he was into me.

"I'd greatly appreciate that, thanks. I haven't had a bite to eat since yesterday," he said earnestly, and I gladly watched him devour the rest of my breakfast with relish. He must've been really hungry. It was worth giving up for such a nice guy. And he's hot too. I didn't think hot guys took subways, not since Andrew Garfield filmed in twenty-twelve. There was a good chance he was single too, I noticed his empty ring finger.

"So, do you take the subway often?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. "I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I don't usually, but I think that might change," he said with a keen gaze at me. "If the company is as good as yours."

"Well I can't guarantee it but if you ever travel this way again, come find me," I said lightheartedly, even though I felt I would've liked to see him again despite the odds of that not happening a second time. He nodded slowly as if he'd made up his mind.

"Yes, I think I will." Wait, did he just imply that he wanted to see me again too? Only time could tell, but that charming smile of his told me that I had fallen hard. And not just on him.