Murphy's Stand was announced through the loudspeaker, but the man didn't pull the wire, seemingly hypnotized by his video. She bit her lip, playfully wondering if she was correct. As the bus slowed down and stopped, her carrier was still watching. People started pushing past him towards the exit. Suddenly, a shadow crossed his face. She could see him mouth "oh shit" as he jumped up from his seat.

And rushed to the exit.

Alone.

Leaving her behind, in that same seat.

She stared in disbelief, thinking that surely, he was coming back, but he wasn't there, and then the doors closed, and the bus took off again. New people came in and started taking seats. She was still on her own.

As her shock changed to fury, she opened up the Minicomm, went to the Leaf app and texted him:

"WTF?"

followed by:

"you forgot me"

Seconds ticked away. She could so easily imagine him standing there, by the side of the street, with his bicycle, as he fumbled with his phone... reading her message... probably slamming a palm against his forehead... And she couldn't help but think of food delivery drivers that she had interacted with so much in her past life; how sometimes they'd get addresses, or orders, or something else wrong, and then sometimes they would try to fix it, but sometimes they would just block you or flick you off the screen or however it actually worked (Brooke never worked delivery). Of course, you could always get a refund. And, for sure, she'd get hers for this ride. But... but what was she supposed to do? No, the man should totally come and find her...

The conversation closed on its own.

"Where do you want to go?" the cheery Leaf welcome screen came up.

- Fuck! - she screamed in disbelief. She unclasped the safety brace as she ran to the door to the box, wondering if it can even be opened from the inside. She had to find someone...

"No, wait", she thought to herself. She was in a yellow and black box that said "LIVE HUMANS". Her best chance was to stay inside. Someone was bound to find this very soon. Someone would...

She didn't notice as the bus came to a stop again, letting more people in, but she did notice a shadow suddenly appearing over the seat. She lifted her eyes just in time to notice that a man was now standing over the seat formerly occupied by her carrier. She caught a flash of a neatly trimmed beard, black hair, olive skin; he was wearing a black t-shirt and had muscular arms, one of which reached for the box.

- Thank God, - she said, smiling; she was about to get help...