Riding the train became a habit, a requirement to get in and out of the big city. Whether it was for work, an appointment or even a night out with Chelsea and Ramona, the train would be my saving grace, my red stallion that never failed, no matter the conditions mother nature threw at me. Riding the train was a consistency in my young adult life. It never failed me.

And yet it brought me to him.

The man with the raven black hair and stormy grey eyes was always here, the third seat from the door, another consistency that I've grown accustomed to. Its gotten so out of hand that it'd be unnatural, so abnormally unusual if he wasn't there. For some reason I found myself searching for him today amongst the crowd of people heading home for the holidays. Given my height, I wouldn't be too successful. The door opened to a platform and people began to exit, ultimately giving me a chance to breathe and search a while longer for the familiar unfamiliar.

"Did you lose something," says a voice, as unfamiliar as the seven seas. I turn to see a blonde man with warm brown eyes and a smile that said he wanted more than what he was offering.

"No, but thanks," I smile, before turning back around. Several people piled into the already crammed cart when I spotted him. He sat in the distance wearing business casual clothes and staring out the window. I felt a bit more at ease this time when I lost sight of him because of the crowd.

"I'm Wyatt, by the way," says the blonde, who still stood behind me. I felt the need to tell him in not interested, but I've never been one to be outright rude.

"I'm Liza," I say, turning partially because that's all the room I was allowed.

"That's pretty name," he says. His eyes linger on my lips and I hold back the need to sigh.

"You know, there's a coffee shop down on 21st street," he starts and I mentally roll my eyes, knowing that this was expected. I don't know if it was my auburn red hair that was always immaculate and long or my hazel eyes that held the millions of flecks of gold or the fact that I gave off an inviting presence but at least one person a day would man up and ask me out on a date. Sometimes I would say yes, but then they would always prove to be inconsiderate, childish and uneducated. I mean it's not that hard to split a bill. Not to put a label on this guy but I've played the game long enough to know what he was after.

"Sorry, I'm not a coffee person," I say. He shrugs his shoulders before smiling again.

"Well are you a Hennessey and Vodka type of person, because I have just the thing back at my place," he says. I sigh out loud causing a few people to watch me out of the corner of their eyes.

"Sorry Wyatt. Truth be told, I prefer someone a lot more mature than what you've showed me right now. Not to mention I play for a different team altogether," I say and his eyes go big.

"I can work with that," he replies. "Two is better than one." I give a singular fake laugh as the train pulls to a stop at another station.

"Good luck finding one period," I say, putting distance between me and Wyatt as I walked closer to the man who was looking out the window. I look to see his head tilting on the window, his eyelids covering the grey storm clouds that were his eyes.

"Where are you going," Wyatt asked. I jumped not expecting him to close the distance, much less put a death grip on my hand. I was seconds away from experimenting with the lessons I learned in self defense class on him when a voice spoke up.

"Wyatt is it? Isn't this your stop," said my consistency. Wyatt glared at him having no time to think before the bell rung saying we were going to depart soon. Wyatt walked off the train, still glaring though this time it was directed to me. More people came on, all but pushing me backwards. I end up standing next to the man of consistency.

"What a world," he says lowly and I smile.

"You said it," I mumble back. I turn to him only to see the remains of a fading smile. I hold out my hand for him to take.

"Thanks for stepping in," I say. He takes my hand and shake it, linger longer than what would be considered a friendly gesture.

"No problem. Anytime... Liza right?"

"Actually my name is Ryan. Liza is short for my middle name," I say.

"Ryan Elizabeth?" I nod.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ethan James," he says. I smile happy to finally know the name of this mystery. "So was 'playing for the other team' also said as an alibi?"

"No. I'm actually bisexual," I say a bit embarrassed that he heard most of the conversation. He finally gave me a heartwarming smile.

"Already we have something in common," he says causing me to smile wider.

This mystery of this man was unfolding beautifully all thanks to the beautiful consistency of a train.

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I finally get to my small, quiet apartment, satisfied with my day. I kick off my shoes and put them by the door before heading in the kitchen. It was adequate. I didn't have a dishwasher but I didn't need one since I didn't have many people over, or people in general for that matter. Its not like I needed much. All I needed was my apartment, my art, my degree, and Eve.

"Hey beautiful," I say to my midnight black Persian cat that glided against my legs as I grabbed a pecan swirl. I picked her up and took her to my bedroom as I munched on the light snack. I plop down on the bed letting her go and grabbing my iMac given to me courtesy of my grandparents when I graduated high school three years ago. I unlock the screen and open chrome and four tabs pop up. The first one was a new tab that I left open just in case. The second tab was for my online writing class at the college I go to which I'd probably log onto in a while. The third one was wattpad which was my creative writing outlet for short stories and maybe one day, a novel. The last tab was my Gmail. I was waiting to get a message from Adam, my brother. Last year he went into the military full time after his fiancé called off their wedding two nights before the planned date. We were both sad and then we were both pissed. Adam seems to be better but I'm still infuriated at the outcome. I shake off the emotions playing in repeat in my mind as I see that I do have a message from my brother.

"Ryan,

That's nice to hear. Keep up the good work and it'll pay off in no time. Eve has an appointment next week so don't forget about it and hopefully I'll be back in the states in three weeks. Maybe I'll visit. Just in time for mom's anniversary. Write back soon little red.
Love,
Adam the Big Apple"

I smile at his username. He never disappoints when creatively coming up with closing salutations. When he left out, I took in Eve. Its funny right, Adam and Eve. His fiances name was Andrea or Andy for short so for the longest it was Adam, Andy, Eve. Just say it fast and you'll get what I mean. But that's in the past now.

"You hear that Eve? Big brother's coming home soon," I say to the cat. In return I get a long good stare. I widen my eyes staring back at her. After a while of constant staring I sigh and blink.

"I think you cheated," I mumble in a matter-of-fact manner to no one in particular. I switch tabs after starring the e-mail and start my online class. Ten minutes into the lesson my phone vibrates probably another email notification. I switch tabs and refresh gmail but nothing pops up so now I'm wondering what the heck my phone is doing. I turned off the notifications for both Jelly Splash and Plants Vs Zombies and the other notifications are muted. I swiftly scoop up my phone to see what was wrong with it. It turns out I got a text message from Ethan. I unlock my phone and click the message to see that he attached a photo.

The photo was of a red headed woman with green eyes holding and auburn red headed baby and smiling at the camera.

I think this is yours.

I quickly hit the call button and wait a few seconds before I hear a hello.

"Thank you so much," I say. "I don't know when I lost it. You're a life saver!"

"I take it the picture is yours then," he says. I nod forgetting he couldn't see me. "I can drop it off or give it to you tomorrow in the train if you want."

"Of course. Since we're going to be on the train anyway that's fine. I can wait," I say, feeling like an idiot for dropping my mother's picture.

"Okay. I'll hold onto it. Bye then," he says.

"Thanks again. Bye," I say.

Okay so I guess I have some explaining to do, like how do I have Ethan's number and when did we get on such friendly terms. If you want to know then I guess we need to go back to the train.

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After our introductions it fell into an uncomfortable silence, for me at least. A few seconds ago Ethan got a call and I was uneasy about listening in on the conversation. There wasn't many other options available.

"Yeah... No I understand... I haven't found a good doctor yet... If you really cared about Max then you would be helping him through this... Celine... no. I'll talk to you later... Yeah okay bye," he said hanging up and forcefully shoving the device in his pocket. He crosses his arms, obviously not wanting to be disturb. I stumble as the train lurches, almost falling onto Ethan before I caught myself. I look up to see he had an amused look on his face, most likely directed at me considering the expression he had a few seconds ago.

"Oh Shut up," I say. He gives a stifled laugh in response.

"I don't recall saying anything," he said.

"I beg to differ," I mumble. He gives a small laugh. I felt uneasy about asking him about his phone conversation but what did I have to lose.

"So who's Max," I ask. Thankfully he smiled instead of giving me the cold shoulder.

"He's the Doberman I have. Lately he's been looking sick though so I've been trying to find a credible vet for him but most of them are way too expensive," he says, surprising me.

"Well, I take my cat, Eve, to the animal hospital two stops back thataway," I say pointing in the direction. "You can get a discount if you have a credible number of a member. It'd be half off for the next three check ups actually."

"Its this you giving me your number," he teases.

"That's only if you want it," I reply and he smiles. A minute later had we exchanged our information and were in a light conversation when he stood up.

"Sorry I'm being rude. Go ahead and sit down," he says stepping out of the way.

"No, no I'm fine standing. Really I am," I say quickly not expecting him to give up his seat. Actually I didn't know what to expect of him. The only thing I knew was that his name was Ethan James Carter, he had a dog named Max, and his eyes wrote a poem about about a never ending storm.

He smiled at the ground before looking back at me.

"I like to think I was raised better than sitting down when someone else would be better off," he says lowly, not breaking eye contact.

"I-i only have two stops left," I say.

"Then I guess I can get my seat back after two stops," he says. I smile taking a glance at the seat, still feeling bad. Suddenly the train lurches causing me to bump into Ethan before falling onto the seat.

"See? The gods have spoken," he says before breaking out into a smile. I return the gesture enjoying the atmosphere.

I almost forgot we were on a train.

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