Love Amidst Depression

The following story was inspired by Jojo. It was like a prompt that he gave me and I suddenly had the idea. His version was actually "Love in the Time of Retrenchment". But I thought it sounded like the novel and movie "Love in the Time of Cholera" so I tweaked it a bit.

Ethan Brown sat motionless in his seat for what seemed like an hour. He couldn't believe it. He actually didn't notice that he was still for so long because of the shock he had just received in a letter. He was fired. He lost his job. He was terminated. And he could not do anything about it.

At last, Ethan stood up. He did not bother to pack and tidy his desk. He grabbed his thick skin overcoat and set out for a long walk outside. The wintry February breeze was hard on his face. No sun shone in the sky, thick clouds loomed heavily above. The cobbled London streets were white with snow with only a few passers-by at this time of the day. But none of these took Ethan's notice. He was numbed with shock. He just lost his job as a Design Architect in one of the biggest firms in the country.

Mulling things over, he realized he should have expected it somehow. The economy was at its worst in the last quarter and all companies big and small were obviously affected. Redundancies were already heard in various offices in the past couple of weeks and having a senior position in the company, he knew that his office was in trouble too. For the past weeks, he was too occupied with design presentations for a couple of projects for bidding. But all his hard work did not pay off. He was not able to win any bidding and the company had no new project. Even the current projects they were working on will be finished soon and others were put on hold or worse, cancelled. The company was surely in great turmoil and as one of the measures to cut on company losses, they made certain positions redundant. And so he was one of the fifty employees who received the letters of termination this morning.

He didn't notice that he reached the train station at Charring Cross. The woman behind the counter asked him where he was going and as he caught sight of the train map nearby, he blurted the first station his eyes came upon, Paddington Station. He paid the woman and took his ticket and change and proceeded to the platform where his train will be arriving in five minutes. Still deep in his own reverie, he did not notice the woman wearing dark glasses and long frock coat who stood beside him.

As he stepped into the train, he sat across the window and gazed in the gloomy scenery outside. A woman sat beside him and he did not even bother to look. Five minutes after the train took off, he was pulled out of his deep thoughts when the woman beside him dozed off and her head was falling towards him.

Ethan felt irritated and wanted to wake the woman up but he didn't want to be rude. The woman looked completely exhausted. He simply ignored this and continued gazing out of the window. After a few more minutes, the woman's head fell completely on his shoulder and she still seemed oblivious as her head stayed on his shoulder.

He can hear the woman's even breathing, with her head so close to his face. He shifted his body awkwardly but the woman continued to sleep. After a few more movements, the woman didn't even stir so he ignored his attempts altogether and let her head stay on his shoulder. He shifted for the last time to make himself comfortable in his position.

While the woman's head rested on his shoulder, her face was tilted a little upward so that her face was somewhat facing him. He glanced sideways and took notice of the woman's smooth white skin. Her dark glasses was still on but he caught a glimpse of dark and long lashes on her closed eyes. He wondered what color her eyes were. Her nose stood up nicely and her cheekbones looked in harmony with her entire unmasked face. Her lips were very little ways apart but it may seem unnoticeable as they are a bit moist and pouty and no lipstick blocked their natural beauty. He wondered what those luscious lips taste like.

He took a deep breath as he shook himself away from those thoughts. He had more matters in his head he should be dealing with rather than succumbing to lusting thoughts this stranger beside him had brought on. But his deep breath had finally awoken the woman. She jerked off in a sudden movement that she bumped her head on Ethan's chin.

"Ow!" Ethan blurted out, rubbing his chin.

"Oh, sorry!" the woman said simultaneously. She raised her head up and looked at him realizing that she she had her head on the man's shoulder. Embarrassed by this realization, she felt the heat rise up on her cheeks as she blushed scarlet.

Ethan was about to retort when he noticed her blushing cheeks. The color made her face look so dashing that he forgot what he was about to say. "Er,it's okay," he said instead. The woman awkwardly moved a little way away from him.

Her single statement left ringing in Ethan's ear. She had a soft and sweet, melodic voice. He gazed out of the window again but the face of the woman seemed to loom in front of him. As if he was not dumbstruck enough, she spoke again. "Sorry, I dozed off and fell on your shoulders. You must've felt uncomfortable. I don't normally sleep on travels but I was just so exhausted."

He caught her blushing again as he faced her. "It doesn't matter. It happens," he said simply.

Madeleine thought he looked so serious and felt even more embarrassed when she disturbed him. She felt completely awake now. She did not usually talk to strangers, let alone initiate conversation and she surprised herself when she continued talking.

"So, where are you headed?" she asked.

Ethan was amazed with himself when he didn't feel irritated by the woman's questioning. She seemed like she wanted to hold a conversation. He thought of discouraging her but found himself answering her attentively.

"I bought a ticket to Paddington Station but I have no particular place to go to. Any ideas where can I go? he said, longing for her answer to hear her singsong voice again.

"I don't have any ideas, but what do you have in mind?" Madeleine answered.

"Why don't you have a cup of coffee with me?" Ethan blurted out before he can stop himself. "But of course, you needed rest obviously," he amended.

"I think, what I really need is a cup of strong coffee. I'm Madeleine," she said smiling at him while offering her gloved hand altogether.

"Ethan," he answered and smiled and accepted her hand. The electronic female voice suddenly announced Paddington Station. Madeleine stood up and scooped up her tote. She tightened the belt around her coat, preparing for the cold outside the train doors. She stepped out of the train and so did Ethan, stepping aside so he walked beside her.

They didn't talk much while walking as the cold breeze required them to pull their coats and neck warmers up, nearly covering their mouths and making conversation impossible. It seemed that a snowstorm was coming soon. Madeleine stopped in front of a cafe named Fresco and turned to speak to Ethan.

"Does this look okay with you?" she said nearly shouting above the already howling winds.

"Looks good to me," Ethan replied and grabbed to push open the door of the cafe and ushered Madeleine in.

She sat on a couch in a corner table beside the glass window and Ethan sat opposite her. The cafe felt warm and comfortable and as the place was not too crowded at the moment and with only a few lights on and a gloomy scene outside, the place looked cozy and ambient.

A waitress arrived at their table and gave them a menu. Madeleine ordered a large cappuccino while Ethan wanted a large latte. Madeleine finally removed her glasses and set them on the table. Ethan noticed that she had deep brown eyes and he was right about the long lashes. But her eyes seemed to have dark purple circles underneath them. (to be continued)