Romance Dialogue by Kara and Lauren

Setting: New York City.  Subway late at night. They are on the train, waiting for their stops.

                                       
                                                 

Eli is distracted by all the action that is going on in the subway. He finds it fascinating that everyone in the city has a place to be in a very short amount of time. While he was making observations, someone pulled his attention.

A girl walks onto the train talking loudly into her cell phone, causing everyone to look. She seems to be gossiping.
Realizing everyone is staring at her, she takes her seat.
Eli is staring at her. He’s not used to loud city people. Something about this loud girl makes her interesting.
“Can I help you?”
He takes out the earphone from his left ear. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I’m not used to hearing people have such honest conversations in public.”
“If you don’t want to hear it, then you don’t have to listen.”
“No, no. That’s not what I meant. Or rather, I wasn’t eavesdropping. Sorry.” He walks over and extends his hand to her. “I’m Elijah Newman.”
She looks at his outstretched hand confused. “Um, hi.”
“I didn’t mean to offend.” He retracts his hand but still studies the profile of her face. “What’s your name?” His abruptness surprises even himself.
“Bianca.”
“Bianca…last name?”
“Why the hell do you care?”
“Sorry. I’m not from New York. Where I come from everyone knows each other’s last name. I don’t know how this city works yet.”
“You’ll learn quickly.”
“People here are so honest. There’s no polite bullshit.”
“No ones got time for that in New York.”
“I think that’s why I like it here.” His gaze fell on her again. “Why I like the people here so much.”
The subway rolled to a stop. “Well, this is mine.”
“Oh, alright. I’ll see you around.”
She snorted. “I doubt that. This is New York.”
Bianca gets up to leave the train and her wallet is left on the seat behind her.
Noticing this Eli quickly gets to his feet grabs the wallet and runs after her.
Bianca has her headphones in and doesn't hear him calling to her.
He touches her shoulder.
She turns around and instinctively takes a swing at his nose.
Bianca realizes its him and shouts “What the hell? You can’t just sneak up on people like that.”
He holds out the wallet as a peace offering.
She looked from the wallet to his bleeding nose and back again. “Wow, you really don’t know how this city works.”
Bianca notices the blood streaming down his nose. “Ah, shit, sorry. You really shouldn't scare a girl like that.” She digs through her purse and hands him some tissue.
“Its fine. No really, it was crooked before anyway.”
She laughs for the first time.
“You’re kind of funny.” She grabbed hold of his arm. “If your nose isn't too badly broken, call me.” She scribbled her number on his forearm in sharpie. “I will show you around.”
He watched as she walked away. Eli had a broken nose and an arm covered in ink that probably wouldn't wash off for weeks. Eli was totally mesmerized.