Have you ever seen the classic 90s film Sliding Doors? Where one version of Gwyneth Paltrow manages to get in the tube doors in time and another misses it by seconds and their lives go off on totally different tangents? Well I hadn’t until last weekend. Something like that happened to me last Friday, only in my case it was a guy who made the closing tube doors and his bag that didn’t. As I was getting to the bottom of the stairs coming onto the westbound Central line platform at Holborn, I turned the corner to see a rather handsome guy, older than me, probably late twenties, wearing a tight t-shirt and shorts, showing off his nicely toned, tanned arms and legs. He was going at quite a pace and managed to jump at speed through the doors just as they were closing. His black plastic bag, marginally behind him, wasn’t so lucky. As it caught in the door the contents were strewn over the platform at my feet. I’ll never forget the look of panic on his face as he looked through the door window at the floor, open mouthed and wide eyed. He then looked up at me, the only person on the platform, as the train pulled out of the station and he sped off into the tunnel.
Alone on the platform.
The plastic bag was half way down the platform by now, blown by the wind from the train, but the contents were on the floor and hadn’t moved. I leant down to pick the items up. They should fit into my bag and maybe he’ll wait at the next platform. I now realised why he was in such a stunned panic. In front of me were three pairs of Addicted underwear – A red boxer brief with thick elastic waist band, a black jock strap and a blue striped wrestling singlet. Under the singlet lay a bottle of Spunk lube and a packet of Gold Max Blue pills.
This guy obviously had a fun weekend planned! Next to them was a flyer for esmale.com advertising gay sex toys. Looking at the tags on the items, they were all from esmale. I hurried them all into my bag as people were starting to arrive on the platform behind me. A middle aged woman in a trouser suit spied the lube and looked down at me, giving me a smirk and a wink. I instantly blushed and protested to her that they weren’t mine. She smiled back and nodded knowingly. I was so embarrassed. The next train came a minute later and I got on, my heart still pounding from the scramble to get everything into my bag in time. The ride to Tottenham Court Road felt like it took forever, but sure enough, as I pulled in to the station there was the guy waiting directly outside the train door. His panic had turned into a look of total embarrassment and he stared at me hopefully with his hand half covering his face. I smiled at him as the door opened and stepped off the train. ‘I think I have some things of yours’ I told him with a raised eyebrow. His blushes disappeared as he laughed and his face lit up with relief. He had the deepest of blue eyes and such a warm smile. He was definitely a handsome man. I told him that I didn’t have the plastic bag. I was getting off here anyway, I lied to him (I had been heading straight home), so offered to go upstairs with him to a shop and get a bag to save his embarrassment carrying them in his hands.
Follow your own destiny.
After quickly ducking into a supermarket to get a plastic bag I was turning to leave when he looked quizzically at me and asked whether he could buy me a drink to say thank you. I said he absolutely could. We ducked into a pub on Old Compton Street and he ordered a couple of pints of lager. He had a dinner to get to shortly afterwards but we exchanged numbers. He was called Adam. We were texting all evening and the next day he invited me over to his to watch a film. It was Sliding Doors, he’d bought it specially to stream for me. The film had me wondering about destiny and fate, and how one split second can change everything. Had our destinies come together in the same way? It was very profound and romantic. As the credits were rolling, he leaned over and kissed me. I stayed over at his that night, I didn’t have to ask him what he was into in the bedroom but I will say that he looked good in his Addicted underwear. Our second proper date is tonight and I can’t wait. It’s like the universe, with a little help from esmale, conspired for us on Friday evening in Holborn station. I was looking through my messages from Adam while daydreaming at work today. I had a cheeky idea. I went to my contact address book and edited his name from Adam to Gwyneth, next to a laughing face emoji. He deserves that at the very least. I wonder where our destinies will take us together.
Gwyneth, or Adam, wasn’t his real name, but the events of that weekend happened were and the boys are still smiling.
With Love
www.esmale.com
