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looked at him for a moment. She took on a more comfortable position with both her knees up to her chest and her toes buried in the narrow space between the two chairs. She sat back against her pillow trying hard to remember when the last time she had a nightmare. It must have been years ago. She usually didn't even remember what she dreamt. 
    Miranda noticed suddenly that the bus was slowing down, and quickly glared out of the window to see they ended up in a traffic jam. She couldn't imagine traffic jams forming at night, so the only logical conclusion had to be that there had been some kind of accident out ahead. 
    "Do you get nightmares often, or do you think you'll be okay for now?" she asked Adrian in a careful voice, not knowing what kind of answer to expect. Miranda suppressed a yawn, finally feeling the sleep starting to pull at her.
    Adrian was thankful to have Miranda with him on this trip. He considered himself very lucky to have met her. “I get them once in a while, but I think that I will be okay. Don’t worry.”
    He repositioned himself a little more comfortable while Miranda prepar ed to sleep. The bus had slowed to a stop, which indicated that they will be there a while. Adrian laid his head down more to the left towards Miranda. Without thinking, he had put his hand over hers on the arm rest. He was asleep again before he knew what happened.
    Miranda stared in turn at the bigger hand that was covering hers and to Adrian's sleeping face.   Uhm, what just happened?  The answer was obvious, but there were two things she didn't understand. The first was why on earth he would do something like this. The second was why it felt like a small electric shock was pulsating through her veins at his touch. Flashes of conversations shot through Miranda's mind.  Guys don't talk to me. Handle with care. Not attractive to men.  
    Miranda swallowed. This was ridiculous. Six hours in a bus could throw her off bala nce with an incident like this? Normally, she would have instantly pulled back her hand, but now she was already staring at the one that was hiding hers for a couple of minutes. Miranda clenched her jaws and cursed herself for this ridiculous behavior when she slowly, and ever so careful not to wake Adrian, slid her hand from underneath his. Her body was tense when she looked at his face to see if he had woken up by it. The only thing that changed slightly was his steady breathing, which was interrupted shortly before continuing. Miranda exhaled. 
    When she wrapped her arms around her knees and tilted her head to the side to lie against her pillow, the warmth his hand had transferred to hers slowly faded. For a moment, she wondered why she   had  to ruin the moment again, why she  had  to pull back her hand. She couldn't help but look at the man next to her. She guessed he was only a few years older than her, maybe twenty-five. His dark brown hair was almost black in the dark bus. For the first time, Miranda noticed she found him quite good-looking. 
    Bloody hell, Miranda, get a grip on yourself,  she thought furiously, and firmly closed her eyes. That was quite enough of that. She remembered she still had her headphones around her neck, and put them on her ears again. The battery would probably be dead when she woke up, but it would help her get to sleep. Besides, by that time, she had someone to talk to. Focusing hard, Miranda chose one of the relaxation techniques she had learned during her yoga training and applied it on herself. Soon, all the thoughts were banned to a corner of her head and her mind went blank at the moment sleep got its hold over her. She would wake in exactly the same position she went to sleep in.

Chapter Eight
     
    Adrian slept throughout the remainder of the night quietly. He did not have any more nightmares and he did not wake up until the bus stopped again. It was morning and time for their next break. Adrian glanced over at Miranda, still asleep with her headphones in her