He smiled. “You would have figured it out.”
“Eventually,” I said with a chuckle.
There was a pause before Stefan extended his hand once more. “Well, enjoy your visit to Berlin.”
“I will,” I said, smiling as we shook.
We stood there for a moment longer, then Stefan inclined his head and turned away, disappearing into the crowd.
I watched him go.
It should have ended there. After all, it was only a stranger helping another stranger, right? Nothing more than that. But something in me resisted the moment closing quite so neatly.
I stayed where I was a second too long, as if part of me expected him to turn back.
He didn’t.
Then my phone buzzed in my pocket, and the moment was broken.
I took it out and peered at the screen.
Karl: Where are you?
I typed quickly.About to get a taxi. Coffee would be good.
Karl: It will be waiting for you.
I pocketed my phone, then glanced in the direction Stefan had taken. The crowd had swallowed him up.
I wasn’t sure if what surged through me was disappointment, regret, or simply the sense that something had slipped past me before I’d had a chance to understand it.
I exhaled, shaking my head.I’m being ridiculous. It had been a simple kindness, nothing more.
And yet?—
If that was Berlin… If men like Stefan were just part of the landscape here?—
A strange, unfamiliar thought surfaced.
Maybe I’ve come to the right place.
Stefan
I walked away without looking back.
I’d learned that a long time ago, not to linger, not to turn a passing moment into something it wasn’t. Berlin was full of brief encounters and glances.
Possibilities that dissolved as quickly as they appeared.
I slowed as I reached the edge of the concourse. Something tugged at my attention, and I stopped and turned, incapable of quelling the impulse.
Kieran was still there, exactly where I’d left him, his attention focused on his phone. I watched him for a moment, unableto rid myself of the impression I’d had on the train. I’d sensed attraction, no doubt about that, but there was something else layered beneath it. A kind of hesitation, as if Kieran were standing on the threshold of something he didn’t yet understand.
And then again, maybe I’m reading too much into this.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. The way he held himself, so contained, so careful. There was tension in those broad shoulders. I recalled the way his eyes tracked the space around him, alert but uncertain.
And then there was the way he looked. That full beard ending in such a neat line, those blue eyes… I’d glimpsed the curve of muscles across his shoulders, not to mention the dark hair beneath that white shirt.