Free A Beautiful Struggle by Lilliana Anderson Page A

tapped in his number and called his own phone. “There, now we both have each
other’s numbers,” he told me, as he handed me back my phone. I looked at my
call list and noticed he saved it under ‘Evan’ and smiled to myself.
    “We ready? There will be a train soon,”
called out David impatiently.
    “Ok, we’re coming,” I told him. We all
walked together toward Town Hall Station. Elliot took my hand and interlaced
our fingers leaning in close to me. Carmen and Andrew held hands as well; David
was the odd man out walking beside me with his hands in his pockets, and his
head down. He had become very quiet, and I was worried about him.
    Upon reaching the station we saw that the
train was due in within a minute. David, Carmen and I said a quick good bye,
rushed down the stairs to the platform as the train was pulling in and walked
straight on board.
    There were plenty of seats at that time of
the night, so we settled in at the front of the carriage where we could face
each other and chat on the way home. I spoke to Carmen, about how long she had
been dating Andrew. She told me that they had been together for nearly a year.
I was surprised that there hadn’t been any repercussions at work for them.
    “The no dating policy only becomes a
problem if someone else has a problem with you dating. No one cares if Andrew
and I are together. We keep to ourselves. Let’s face it, he’s no Elliot, so no
one really takes any notice of us. You on the other hand, will have to be very
careful, especially after tonight. A lot of girls really like Elliot and they
are all going to have their noses out of joint when they find out he likes you.
He normally doesn’t give any of the girls the time of day, so you kissing him
in public after only a week, is going to ruffle some serious feathers.”
    I leant back in the seat and let out a
heavy sigh, “I know. We're going to have to hide it.”
    David sat forward frowning, “Listen, this may
not be any of my business here but do you think that’s wise? I’m all for you
moving on, but I don’t know if a secret relationship is a good thing for you
Katrina,” he pointed out haughtily.
    “No David, I don’t think it’s wise,” I
sighed again and looked out the window at the passing lights of the tunnel,
“but I can’t stop thinking about him – I feel drawn to him, and I need to find
out where that takes us; without either of us losing our jobs.”
    “I just want you to think about this
seriously Trina. Before you were saying you didn’t want a relationship, and
that it was all happening too fast. Now you’re talking about risking your job
for a guy you’ve only known a week – You’re flip flopping,” he crossed his arms
over his chest and put his feet on the seat across from him, doing exactly what
the sign above his head told him not to do.
    “I know what I’m doing David,” I assured
him.
    “Well, I’m glad you know,” he mumbled as he
chewed on his thumb nail and stared out the window. I watched him for a moment
as he only chewed his nails when he was agitated about something. He turned and
met my eyes, and I knew from his look that then wasn’t the time to talk to him.
    Instead, I turned to Carmen, and we talked
easily the rest of the way home with David only entering the conversation
occasionally when Carmen asked him a direct question.
    When the train pulled into Penrith Station
David walked us both over the bridge and to my car.
    “Will you come over tomorrow?” I asked him
before he left.
    He leaned forward and kissed me roughly on
the cheek, “Sure,” he said and raised his hand to say goodbye to Carmen. “It
was nice to meet you,” he told her.
    “You too,” she said quietly. “Is there
something going on between you two?” she asked as she got into the car, “I
mean, did you use to date or something?”
    I started the car as soon as I saw David
get inside his own. “No. We have never dated and there is nothing going on.
He’s just …