UNTIL I MET YOU

believe in mirac

t coins under flickering diner lights. Knew how to breathe through the ache in her feet after do

uxury. Or indulge

t. And sometimes

hunched into her thrifted coat, her cheap umbrella flipping inside out with every gust of wind. By the time she reached the

ormal night. A shift, a p

e saw t

m. Tall, sharply dressed, an overcoat hanging from his broad shoulders like a tailored shadow.

d. Just enough to register expensive

sidewalk statues in

at the back booth and a couple mid-argument over soggy pancakes. The manag

Rain kept falling.

ll over the

up from the

was

from the

et. Or cold. Or rushed. In fact, he looked like he had stepped int

relaxed but eyes sharp, taking in everything lik

, walking over, pen

at her-on

enough to

ored. Not quite blue. N

w and refined, like he wasn'

hing

pa

len

blin

fake note on her pad to give herself something to do. "But

outh

sli

niest

of him without ceremony. He didn't touch i

o look at him ag

bout him un

a dange

eel when you don't understand the art

er in the middle of the

portant

the already-clean sugar contain

ake a singl

check h

n't

fee like it was the last

out warnin

et. Dropped three crisp hundr

breath

... too

oked

for q

h that,

e. No

d him, the bell chimi

ing at the money. Her heart thundered with

e him again, sh

like this only once. Brief flicker

cruel and strang

me she saw him, it

dn't be wear

office that touched the clouds, wearing b

would no longe

e man who chan

ake the image of

sts, men with too much money and too little sense. But there was something different about him. Somethin

heavy gaze he had turned toward her-remained with her like a lingering chill. She couldn't stop thinking about the way he h

nerve

ly drained from the constant movement, but something-some restless energy-kept her from simply going home. She was used to the gri

ht felt d

still awake, a throbbing, pulsing mess of lights, noise, and motion. Aria brea

it d

subway entrance when she heard the familiar

art sk

round. Didn't hav

e sharper than she intended, but there was n

had been in the diner, though there was something in the deep timbre that made her blood r

e man had said nothing but a few words to her, yet something in the way he carried himself, something in the

dismissive, though her heart quickened again at t

he had somehow anticipated it all along. "You have a.

n she cared to admit. She turned, meeting his gaze

rumored to be. His clothes, dark and tailored, were far too expensive for a rainy night on the Lower East Side. His expr

"I don't know what game you're playi

, but his eyes never left hers. He didn't seem

"Sometimes, things happen because they need to. Because

ave, but something kept her rooted to the spot. This man, this

t weaker than she wanted them to. It didn't seem like a fight anym

s also what drives people to do t

looked down, her fingers brushing the strap of her bag, her mind

, her voice low, her words coated in bitterness. "To scrape by, just to keep your

onder if she had pushed him away-if he was just another

e again, quie

wrong,

, like he had known her for years, like he'd been calli

ut I can't help but wonder if fate

d began to walk away, disappearing int

ike that,

that she had been changed by his p

houghts tangled in the mess of what just happened. And somewhere deep insi