Beck Kendall sighed as she dropped into a seat on the Go Train. God, she hated getting up this early to take the train into Toronto. It was always incredibly crowded, everyone was fighting for a seat, people wound up standing arm to arm and front to back with barely a centimetre between them. Half the time people wound up sitting on the stairs - dangerous as hell if the driver suddenly hit the brakes. Luckily, she was able to find an actual available seat in a quad on the top level, next to a grumpy man in a business suit on his phone and across from a pair of teenagers in school uniforms.
Rather than listen to the guy next to her yell into his phone, she pulled out her earbuds and started her ‘Go Train’ playlist. Loud enough to drown out the rest of the noise; not like anyone would hear it when it was so crowded anyway.
It would be hard to get her full laptop set up in the space available to her, so she took out her tablet and started reviewing her documentation. Working on the public transit always made her sick, but at least she had managed to - miraculously - snag a window seat to recover if needed.
Whatever had been done to Josh Tanner’s computer, it was a doozy and it would take possibly weeks or months for her to recover the files and work out what happened. Good thing he was paying her well and hadn’t tried to lowball her rate. And it wasn’t remotely intimidating, having to interact with someone as famous as him for upwards of months. After the other day at his…office building house, he probably couldn’t wait to get rid of her, between the muttering to herself over his laptop and her annoying questions about his internet habits.
One of these days she would have to start reigning herself in and develop a filter before she opened her damned mouth. As a grown-ass woman in her late thirties, she should have learned that lesson ages ago. Instead, here she was making an ass of herself in front of every new person she met. Hopefully, it wouldn’t affect the loan approval she had in the works. As soon as she had that money, she would be able to start her own website in earnest, instead of the Geocities-looking basic site she had now, and get her digital forensics business off the ground.
Sighing, she glanced down at the backpack between her legs. It was a little larger than usual, since she had put in a dress to change into later. Not that she’d had much luck with dating sites, but the guy who asked her out seemed pretty cool. And since she was planning to be in Toronto anyway, why not meet up for dinner? Socializing was not her strong suit. Especially with strangers on dating apps. There wasn’t even a single date she could pick out that went well when she had met the guy on a dating app. Why the hell was she doing this again?
Was it the thought of her impending date, the idea of running a business, or the motion of the train that was making her nauseated? With a deep breath, she looked up out the window at the green and white floral company logos and blinked. How the hell was she already that close to Union Station?
“Now arriving at Exhibition Station.”
Beck sat up straighter and started putting her tablet away, though she kept her earbuds in. Easy way to not talk to anyone on the train while escaping the crowd. Thank god. She checked her phone to make sure the playlist was downloaded so she would have the excuse to not talk to people on the subway too.
As the train arrived at Union, she pulled up her phone and checked the time. Not too bad, only a few minutes late. She should still have time to catch the subway up to Lawrence and make it to the Bridle Path before ten, maybe with a stop at Timmies. Just hook the coffee to her veins right now.
After waiting for the train to empty and the crowd on the platform to die down, she headed out. One of the platform announcement TVs caught her eye as she descended to the main level of the station. There was an awful lot of red for her liking. And when she made it to the concourse, it was full of angry passengers, loud complaints, and…just too much. People complaining about service, complaining about needing to get to work, complaining about finding a taxi. Someone was saying that there was also a passenger incident that had taken out the subway. Great.
Wincing, she took the nearest exit to the street and found a place with relatively few people to plan her reroute up to Josh Tanner’s house. As she pulled up the browser on her phone, she sighed. Looked like a signalling issue at Union in addition to whatever passenger incident, which meant that instead of taking an hour, she was looking at double that. Easily. If she could manage to catch a bus in the chaos.
“Fuck,” she sighed. At least, she supposed, she had Josh Tanner’s number to call him and let him know. How fucking unprofessional to show up late on what, technically, was her first appointment with him.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled up his number and dialled.
“Hey,” Josh Tanner’s bright voice greeted. “You almost here?”
“About that….”
“Everything okay?”
Sighing, Beck said, “I mean, I’m okay, the trains and buses aren’t.” His laugh made her smile a little. “The only things that are running right now are the Lakeshore East and West trains. I’m gonna have to cross my fingers for a taxi or a bus, but who knows how long that’ll take. My best guess is I’m about 2 hours out. I’m really sorry!”
“Not your fault,” he replied. “You Canadians and your ‘sorrey’.” The exaggerated mimic of her accent made her laugh. “You’re at Union station?”
“Yeah.”
“One sec, okay?”
“Yeah.” She pushed out a breath and scanned the area around her as she waited. The roads were clogged up more so than usual with the construction on the station. People were crowding the sidewalks around the station and several people were making their way to the Fairmont - probably in the hopes of catching a taxi. Maybe she would have more luck catching a bus closer to the lake? She glanced back inside and chewed on her lower lip - what were the odds she would be able to grab a coffee? Whole damned thing was almost certainly going to be wall to wall angry people. God, she didn’t envy the workers at Union today.
“You’re at Union?”
His voice startled her out of her thoughts.
“Yeah.”
“And the Lakeshore East train is running?”
“As far as I can tell?”
“What time can you get to Scarborough station?”
Whatever she’d been expecting him to say, that wasn’t it. “Uh…let me go inside and check the trains.” Fighting past the mass exodus to search for buses and taxis, she made her way inside and found a platform board announcing the next train in eleven minutes. Scarborough was only, she thought, two stops away, so…. “I think about half an hour?”
“Okay, do that,” he said. “I’ll text you. Gotta go.”
Beck stared blankly at her phone. What the hell had just happened?
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A little over half an hour later, Beck’s train was pulling into Scarborough Go station only slightly delayed due to panicked and angry passengers preventing the train doors from closing. If their day was interrupted, so too was everyone else’s. Or at least that seemed to be the mentality. Of course, that assumed they were even thinking about other passengers at all, which the majority probably weren’t.
Assholes.
In case Josh Tanner had decided to elaborate on ‘I’ll text you’, she pulled out her phone and checked the messages. Nothing.
Sighing, she opened his contact and started to text him when a message came through.
‘Where are you?’
‘Train’s just pulling in to the station’
‘Ok, blue Range Rover’
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth; that was nice of him to send a car for her. She texted back a thank you, then put her phone away as the train came to a stop. Luckily the train wasn’t too crowded this time, but she still waited for most of the occupants to clear before following out the door. Fighting to get out of the station wasn’t her idea of a good time and she couldn’t imagine a situation where she would be so rushed to escape the crowd that she’d be fighting people. Well. Maybe a fire or something, she supposed.
She tapped her Presto card as she exited to the station and walked out to the parking lot, scanning for the blue car. Before she could find it, it drove up to the sidewalk and Beck blinked. He was driving the car himself, smiling at her as she opened the passenger door. He hadn’t sent a car, he was the car.
“You didn’t have to -.”
“What, you wanted to spend hours trying to find a way up to my place?” he laughed. “Nah, it’s fine. I wasn’t doing anything important.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, unsure how else to respond. It really was above and beyond what she would have expected.
“Nothing to thank me for,” he said, pulling away from the sidewalk. “You’re helping me too.”
Beck snorted a laugh. “You’re paying me,” she said. “And paying me well.”
Grinning, he said, “Technically my agency is paying you, I’m just your local guide to my house. You want to stop and get a coffee? I’m dying.”
For once in her life, Beck managed to catch herself before saying something she might regret and bit down on both the comment and the smile it brought to her face.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What?”
When she looked over at him, he was giving her a sidelong smirk as he turned onto Midland Avenue. “It’s nothing.”
“Not with that look it’s not,” he laughed. “Come on, tell me. I don’t bite.” A spark lit in his eyes as his lips pressed tightly together, the corners of his mouth pulling down, and he added, “Much.”
A loud laugh escaped her and she reached up to cover her mouth and stifle it. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Not much of a fan of Starbucks is all.”
“You think Oliver hasn’t trained me better than that?” he chuckled. “In ‘Ch-rah-noh’ you go to Timmies, eh.”
That did it. Laughter bubbled up out of her at his pronunciation of ‘Toronto’. “Literally nobody talks like that.”
“All Canadians,” he said, pulling to a stop in the turning lane. The Tim Horton’s he’d chosen looked relatively quiet for being on a main road this early in the day. Only a couple of cars in the drive-thru. “Every single one.”
“In what reality?” she giggled.
“Every reality.” He pulled into the drive-thru lane and asked, “What do you want? On me.”
Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, she looked over at him. “You don’t have to.”
“I know I don’t have to, but I am, so what do you want?” He turned to grin at her. “Double double?”
“Are you just picking the most stereotypical sounding order?” Was she amused or annoyed? On the one hand, she hated being a stereotype, on the other, he was being nice. A lot nicer than she had even expected.
“Am I right?”
Shaking her head, she admitted, “Yeah, I’m a walking stereotype.”
“Sorry,” he said.
Turning her grin on him, she laughed, “You’re turning into a local.”
Ahead of them, the car next in line moved up and he tossed her a wink as he pulled up to order an extra large black coffee for himself, then turned to her to confirm what size she wanted. She struggled not to laugh when the kid at the pay window saw Josh Tanner had ordered the coffees and donuts. Poor guy looked ready to faint. The kid closed the window and practically ran back inside.
“I think you made his day,” Beck said.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, blushing a little as he pulled ahead. “Hope I don’t hold up the line.” It was a bit odd to be at a drive-thru with someone so famous he can’t even get a cup of coffee without worrying he’ll cause a scene. “I don’t want to hold you up either. Maybe I can just sign some napkins?”
“I’m in no rush,” she assured him. “After all, it’s your place we’re going back to so I can inspect your laptop again. Somehow I think you can convince my employer it’ll be okay.”
The grin he levelled at her made her cheeks warm. “I do have a little sway with them, being one of their biggest contracts.”
“Do you want to go inside to get the coffee?” she suggested, matching his smile with her own. Shouldn’t someone like him have his head buried further up his ass? It surprised her how nice he was, how easy to talk to.
“You don’t mind?”
“Nah, it’s fine,” she said. “I’ll help with the pictures.”
The corners of his mouth nearly reached his eyes as he smiled at her, pulling the car out of the drive thru line.
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The look on Beck’s face as they pulled into the garage made Josh smile. If her remarks about the place didn’t clue him in on her feelings about the decor, the look she wore now sealed it. Mouth turned down at the corners, slight pout, narrowed eyes. She hated it as much as he did. Fucking place looked like a nuclear bunker, not a house. Even the damned garage was clean white surfaces, glimmering with polish and white pot lights on the ceiling. The whole garage was white and not a single speck of dirt was visible.
“How is it so….”
“Pristine?” he suggested, taking the key out of the ignition and stuffing it into his pocket. The number of times he had locked the keys in the car over the years….
“This is a garage, right? Not a showroom floor?”
Josh laughed at that. “I’m pretty sure I said the same thing to Kris when we got here. Come on, I’ll get you set up in the office.” Hopping out of the car, he grabbed the box of donuts and his coffee, then made his way around to her side. Somehow even after the whole fan parade at Tim Horton’s she still looked a little nervous so he took one of the cream donuts out of the box and offered it to her.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she accepted it.
With a grin he took the other cream donut and stuffed his face with it, making sure to get a good glob of cream on his face in the process. “Very strict diet for this movie,” he said around the chunks of donut in his mouth. “Don’t tell anyone.”
Beck blinked, then started laughing.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that? I got something on my face?”
“No,” she giggled. God, the way her eyes sparkled and her nose crinkled when she laughed was adorable. “Not at all.”
So that was her game? Two could play at that. “Office is this way,” he said, leaving the cream where it was as he walked to the door and held it for her.
The way she bit down on her laughter and looked up at him through her lashes…. “So Josh Tanner drives his own cars, eats donuts, drinks black coffee…,” she said, grinning up at him as she walked into the house. “What else do you do?”
“Most people just call me ‘Josh’,” he said, smile threatening to split his face in two as he followed.
Pink slowly spread across her cheeks and nose. “Not the press,” she muttered.
A puff of laughter bubbled up out of his throat. “Depends,” he said. “You interview with the same people enough, you get familiar. And some people meet you for the first time and mistake friendliness for friendship.”
The pink washed into red and she looked away.
“Wasn’t talking about you,” he assured her. “I like hanging out with you.”
The redness in her cheeks and nose got brighter, making him smile. “You’ve known me a grand total of, what, an hour? Two?”
“Plenty of time for me to know I’m having fun,” he said.
“I’m not even going to ask about the cream on your face, Josh,” Kris’s voice sighed to his right.
Forcing his gaze away from Beck’s face and her adorable flush, he grinned at his friend. “I brought donuts!”
Kris shook his head and sighed, looking at Beck. They’d been friends too long, he’d need to up his game if he was going to throw Kris off his.
“I can help you get set up in the office,” Kris offered, gesturing down the hall.
“No, I got this,” Josh said, pointing with the donut box in the same direction. He ignored the pointed look his friend gave him as he led Beck to the office, smiling and chatting away.
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The vibration in her jacket pocket made Beck jump as she walked down Yonge Street, nearing the Hockey Hall of Fame. She had forgotten she’d turned her phone on vibrate when she was looking for an excuse to get out of the date from hell. Maybe she should pick up a bottle of wine for her sister, Dani, for the life-saving text that allowed her to pay her half and run out the door. From the moment he found out she had a tech-related job, he’d started talking about his own job as an IT office manager. She zoned out and texted her sister when he started going on about how women weren’t interested in or very good at tech. Somewhere in his rant, she was pretty sure he mentioned hitting on a woman working for him and how it was surprising she’d left. Then he went on to explain why Internet Explorer was the best browser. Idiot.
As soon as her phone unlocked, she saw the email was from the company where she’d applied for her business loan. Her stomach tightened as she opened the message.
‘After going through your application, we are sorry to inform you that your application was rejected....’
She stopped reading, put the phone away, and blinked back her tears. What a fucking bullshit way to end her day. Nearing the station, she briefly considered getting a room at the Fairmont, doing a luxury spa day, and forgetting about it all with a bottle of red wine all to herself. But that wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with her day, nor was it the most affordable, especially when she had wine at home.
Instead, she made her way inside and nearly lost her shit when she saw the issues from that morning had continued and expanded. All trains were cancelled. People were pushing, bickering, complaining, all trying to find a way home. The customer service line was insane - long and packed with irritable travellers.
The corners of her mouth pulled down and tears pricked at her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she focussed on a spot on the wall until she calmed down, then pulled out her phone. Who the hell was she supposed to text at this time of night? What, Dani was going to drive from Oakville to pick her up?
Then she remembered Josh had said to let him know if the trains were still cancelled. She pulled up his contact and stared at it, pushing out a breath. On one hand, she didn’t want to bother him; on the other, he’d probably be really good at cheering her up. Her mouth tugged upward of its own volition as she pictured him showing up at Union with donut cream on his face. Not the most inconspicuous option.
Pinewood Studios wasn’t that far away from the station. And if he was still there.... Taking a deep breath, she fired off a quick text to ask if he was still on set.
Almost instantly she had a reply.
‘Just about to leave. Trains still cancelled?’
Rather than getting into it, she just asked if he could pick her up at Union.
‘Everything okay?’
It was an innocent enough question, but it made the facade she had built up to stop herself from crying in public shatter. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she made a beeline for the nearest bathroom, locking herself in the stall to cry quietly until it passed.
When she was finally able to take a breath without tears, she wiped her face with her sleeve, then cautiously peered out of the stall and found the bathroom empty. She walked to the sinks, splashed some cold water on her face until she didn’t look red, puffy, and ill, then patted herself dry again.
Making her way through the crowd, she found an empty seat and dropped into it. She pulled out her phone to finally send a reply to Josh. Only there were a ton of missed texts and calls from him. How the hell long had she been crying?
She fired off a quick text and waited, staring at her phone.
After a few minutes with no reply, she started to type again, only to be startled when someone dropped into the seat next to her and exhaled loudly. “You’re okay.”
When she turned away from her phone there was Josh, wearing a hoodie and a pair of dark aviators. She burst into laughter.
“Not the reaction I was expecting,” he groused.
“And I wasn’t expecting the unabomber, but here we are,” she laughed.
He smiled at her. “Date didn’t go well?”
Leaning forward on her elbows, she put her chin on her hands and sighed. “Understatement. And amongst other things.”
“What happened?”
Her lips pressed together and she sighed heavily. “Standard mansplaining bullshit,” she muttered. “Women don’t like IT, women aren’t suited to tech, et cetera and ad nauseum. I had my sister fake an emergency text to get out of there.”
“What a dick!”
Pulling her shoulders into a half shrug, she muttered, “Not really much of a loss. Not like I was attached to a total stranger on a first date.”
“So what were the tears for?”
Beck blinked then looked back at him. “That obvious?”
“Your eyes are red,” he explained, his hand coming up to rub soothing circles on her back.
Nodding, she turned back to look out at the station, watch people rush around and panic over the cancelled trains. “Got turned down for a loan I really wanted,” she mumbled. “Business loan. Bad date, loan declined - again - and cancelled trains. It just…all at once.” It was hard to explain why she reacted how she had. Growing up her mother had always said she was dramatic. Now she knew better - ADHD and emotional dysregulation. Great combination. And probably way too soon to be explaining all that to him. “Only good part of my day was when we were hanging out,” she confessed quietly.
“What if I drive you home, maybe pick up some food on the way? I know just the cure: nachos with cheese dip, slurpees, and ice cream.” The hand had stopped making circles and was now tracing patterns she couldn’t discern. “I make a great ear if you want to vent, too.”
When she turned back to look at him, she felt tears threatening to spill again. But this time it was relief. Josh wasn’t upset, wasn’t judging her, didn’t call her reaction dramatic; he was just…there for her. “Thank you,” she mumbled, smiling at him.
He stood up and offered her his hand with a wide grin. “Let’s go.”