Scruffy Librarian

She stared at him from where she stood. The man was no Adonis, that was for sure, and she never liked using that particular word - it sounded too cheesy and artificial for her taste.

He was - she wondered how best to put it - a man of imperfections, but few actual flaws. He wasn't what most people would have considered incredibly attractive, but he had caught her eye.

She guessed he was in his early thirties, not too old but not too young either. Even from across the train carriage she could see that he would easily tower over her, since his head barely brushed the ceiling. The train carriages weren't made for foreigners, and he was no local.

He wore a button-down shirt of pale khaki, and his trousers and shoes had certainly seen better days. They weren't falling apart, but they were somewhat scruffy.

Scruffy. That was the word she'd use to describe him, with his clothes and glasses and stubble.. He looked proper, but scruffy. Like someone who'd happily spend his weekends in the library, reading musty old history books and getting lost in them until he completely forgot the time.

She decided that he looked rather like an adventurer, like someone she read about in all her books. He looked like a librarian who'd go on treks to find some ancient civilization, someone who'd get down on his hands and knees to brush away the dust on some old pottery before examining it and exclaiming that it was from some ancient city that had been lost in time for centuries. 

Perhaps she was thinking too much, but that was how he looked in her mind. And she liked it. Nevermind his age, and nevermind that if he were really in his thirties he'd be at least ten years older than her, he looked mature and she liked it. She'd never thought the boys her age were interesting to begin with, she'd always wanted to know someone who was older, someone who'd seen the world.

She hasn't realised she'd been staring and smiling at him, and when he looked at her she glanced away and blushed. How embarassing to have been caught staring like some lovesick schoolgirl!

But when she glanced at him again, she saw the left corner of his mouth twitch up.

*Actual guy and actual event that happened today - do me a favour and don't ask me why I wrote this as though I were some idiot girl whose heart was sent all aflutter just by looking at him. I just happened to write it this way, and the words refused to be written any other way.

Anyway, I thought he looked like a Daniel. No reason why, just thought.