Rose-Tinted

“Good morning!”

The exclamation rang out across the airy hall of the Apex Building as it did every day at this time. Eric Westgarth was just arriving for work, and he never crossed the atrium without greeting the receptionists.

“Good morning, Eric,” they replied, pleased at the attention.

He was a difficult man not to like. Always smiling, always had a good word to say: very positive. This applied whether he was at home, out for the evening, or at work. Of course, it was a good company to work for — a decent salary, good working conditions, a full lunch hour, and a friendly boss. “What’s not to enjoy!?” Eric would say. Today, though, there was even more of a spring in his step that usual, and it wasn’t hard to spot.

“What’s up, Eric?” asked Suzanne, the eldest of the receptionists, not unkindly. Eric grinned widely. He let loose a small guffaw, childlike.

“Nothing,” he said, coyly. The girls let it hang there for a moment, sure he wouldn’t be able to resist elaborating. “A girl,” he continued after a pause.

“A girl? Really?” Interest had been piqued now.

“Just someone on the Tube, nothing really,”

“Come on, you’ve got a few minutes; you can tell us!”

There was the slightest sense of salaciousness in the air. Not quite the kind which would lead to office gossip but something that might hang around for a couple of days.

“Oh, it was just someone in my carriage. We glanced at each other and smiled. I was feeling wayward so I said something to her and we started talking,” he could hardly contain himself now, “we’ve planned to catch the same Tube as each other at the end of the day.”

The girls on reception gave him a look of exaggerated shock and awe, humouring his positive energy. He lapped this up. After a few moments of describing the mystery woman, Eric headed for the lift on the corner of the reception area. He pressed the shiny button for the 7th floor, making it glow green, and waited, tapping his hand to his thigh in time with an imaginary tune. The lift arrived, he got in, and disappeared to his work floor. 

Eric could hardly contain his excitement for the end of work. Normally, he was fully in the moment, even at his job, but the anticipation of the Tube ride on his way home kept him distracted throughout the day. As he walked happily across the front entrance floor, one of the receptionists called out after him. 

“Good luck this afternoon,”

Eric beamed, “Thank you!”

“Be good!” The smiles rained down on him from the desks all around.

It really was hard not to feel positive when Eric was around.

The walk to the Tube station lasted an age. When he finally got there, he looked around for the woman he had spoken to that morning. Eric’s smile wavered momentarily as he couldn’t see her. The station was quieter than usual, so it should have been easier to spot her. She wore a bright red coat — even easier. Moments before the train arrived, he felt a light touch on his shoulder. 

“Eric?” said a disembodied voice.

He spun around and found himself facing the woman in question. 

“How was your day at work?” she asked him, smiling.

“Great!” Eric replied, smiling ear to ear, “and yours?”

“Oh, you know, it was fine.” She gave him a warm look and cupped his upper arm with her hand. “It’s really nice to see you,”

The train came moments later and Eric and the woman spent the 18 minutes they were together chatting easily. When Eric’s stop came, he stood up. “Maybe I’ll see you again tomorrow?” There was real hope in his eyes. “I would think so,” she said, a brief chuckle escaping as she spoke.

Next morning, Eric was even earlier than usual at the Tube station. He noted that the usual commuters were present and correct. The Tube pulled in; he scanned the carriage hopefully. There she was. Eric worked his way through the people squashed limb to limb, and arrived standing next to her with a big grin. 

“Hello,” he started.

“Hello, Eric,” she replied.

“Nice to see you again,”

“It’s always nice to have a friendly face on the Tube,”

And so on… They talked of the weather, of work, of the disruption to the Jubilee Line. Just before they both got off, she asked him whether he had a girlfriend or wife?

“No,” said Eric, somewhat embarrassed.

“Oh, OK,” she replied, and changed the subject.

Upon entering his work building, the receptionists were waiting eagerly. Greedy eyes tried to catch his as he strode across to the lifts. 

“Good morning,” he said to the ladies at the front desks.

“Good morning, Eric,” they chimed in unison.

There was tension in the air, although it appeared that Eric was unaware of it.

“Come on, Eric,” said Suzanne, just before he reached the lift, “don’t leave us in suspense. Tell us about this mystery woman!” What’s her name, for a start?”

Eric stopped and turned to them. He was caught in a beam of sunlight, and he squinted as he smiled at them.

“Her name is Dana,” he said softly, “and she’s lovely. I think I’m going to ask her out on a date this afternoon on the way home.”

The thrill was palpable. 

All day, once again, Eric was thinking of little else other than his journey home. He wondered whether he should have mentioned to the receptionists that she’d asked him whether he was with anyone, deciding that a little mystery was a good thing. That evening, on the way out of the Apex Building, Rachael, one of Eric’s biggest champions on the front desks, called him over.

“Here”, she said, “take this rose and give it to Dana as you ask her out.”

He thanked her, put it in his bag, and walked briskly to the Tube stop, a few hundred yards from his offices.

Dana was already there when he arrived. Eric paused, then walked up to her, ready to pop the question. Then, his nerve faltered. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. She looked at him with a quizzical smile, then broke the silence by asking him how his day was. He told her, then reciprocated. They talked until Eric’s stop, by which time he realised the chance had been lost. He got off the Tube, walked a carriage length, stalled, and then had a change of heart for a second time. Moments later, he darted back onto the Tube, one carriage down from where he had been. He was going to ask her out on a date, dammit!

He couldn’t talk to her, as she was in the next carriage, but he could see her, stood in her bright red coat. He waited until she moved to exit, then went to the doors himself. They opened and he got off. He worked his way along the platform, keeping her in sight all the way. He was about to call her name, when he saw her stop and stoop to a bench. The crowds cleared momentarily and he froze. She was kissing someone. The man who had been sat on the bench was now standing, and he and Dana were walking off arm in arm. Eric stood for several minutes in the concrete of the station, feeling dazed. They were long gone when he finally crossed the bridge to the opposite platform, boarded a Tube, and headed home. As he sat down that evening, and unpacked his bag, he came across the rose that Rachael had given him. He let it fall to the floor, and fell asleep where he sat, on the couch.

“Good morning, Eric,” echoed out the voices in the atrium of the Apex Building the following morning. No response.

“Eric?” called Suzanne, “is everything alright?”

He looked across at the receptionists with a sullen face and shrugged. 

“No smile for us this morning?”

Eric crossed to the desk. “I’m not obliged to be a ray of sunshine all the time, am I?” he said.

Suzanne was visibly shocked. 

“Er… no, not at all” she stuttered.

“Ok, then,” he replied, “I’d better get to work.”

That day, not much was talked about other than Eric’s response to Suzanne. Did he mean it? Was he only joking? Was he OK? Why was he being rude? 

By the end of the day, the initial shock had passed and there was a collective decision to try again with Eric on his way out.

“Goodnight, Eric,” called Suzanne as he exited the lift. 

He turned to look at her and gave her a thin smile. Then left.

For the next four days, Eric caught a later train than he usually did, both to work and home again. He would arrive to work in crumpled clothes that had clearly been slept in. He said barely a word to anyone, trading his usual cheery “Good morning” for a frown as he got into the building.

On the fifth day, something changed again. 

“Good morning!” said Eric as he breezed across the azure atrium floor.

There was something akin to a sigh of relief from everyone assembled.

“Good morning, Eric!” said Suzanne first of all, “and, dare I say it…” she paused, “welcome back?”

He smiled at her. “Sorry about these last few days. I’ve been a bit of an… ass,” he let the word linger for a moment, “I was so bound up in something which had happened which, at the time, I though was awful, that I forgot to keep looking at what I had.”

Ears had pricked up all around.

“That woman I’d met on the Tube, I didn’t manage to pluck up the courage to ask her out. When I went to her stop for a second attempt, I saw her with someone else. I was so upset that I’d been led on in that way. I started seeing the world in shades of grey all of a sudden, forgetting to see the colour. I did everything to avoid her, and everyone else for that matter. This morning, she got the later train too. Of course, she wasn’t aware anything was wrong so she started talking to me. She told me how her boyfriend had proposed to her a couple of days ago, and she’d wanted to tell me, but I wasn’t around. I realised that she hadn’t led me on — it was my perceptions which had been awry.”

A few smiles started to form on the faces of the receptionists.

“I told her everything. She gave me a big hug and told me that she thought I was a breath of fresh air in a world full of smog and smoke. She really seemed like she couldn’t wait to see me again. She’s invited me, as a friend, round to her and her fiancé’s next week for dinner. She said we’d really get on. I feel I’ve made a good friend.”

“You are a breath of fresh air,” said Rachael, “you’re our breath of fresh air. She’s lucky to count you as a friend.”

Eric smiled. “Thank you. And thank you all for sticking by me. It means a lot.”

That evening, Eric left a little earlier than usual. After saying his goodbyes to his friends on reception, he walked on to his Tube station. There was Dana, in her trademark red coat.

“Hi, Eric,” she said warmly.

“Hi,” he smiled back. His world was in colour once again.