I couldn't sleep.
The memory of him played on a loop.. his eyes, the curve of his smile, the way time seemed falter when our eyes met. I didn't even know his name but my heart did something traitorous everytime I replay the moment.
My friends had laughed it off. "You're just being dramatic," they said. "You don't fall in love in five seconds." But it didn't feel like five seconds. It felt like the beginning of something.
I walked the same street the next day, eyes scanning faces, pulse quickening with every possibility. But nothing, just strangers. Hope foolish and persistent, booming in my chest like spring.
But the third day, I started questioning myself. Was he real? Did I imagine the intensity? Maybe he was a one time miracle. Someone the universe let me borrow for a heartbeat.
Then on the fourth day as I sat on the bench with my headphones in and hope quietly dying.....
He walked by again.
And this time, he stopped.
He looked just as I remembered. Tall, lean, a kind of effortless confidence in the way he moved. He paused right in front of me, squinting slightly like he was trying to place me.
He remembers me, I thought wildly.
I yanked my headphones out so fast they nearly flew across the pavement.
"Hey," he said.
Just that. One word. But his voice had that soft, slightly raspy texture, like morning after rain.
I blinked. My mouth opened but nothing came out. My brain was still rebooting.
He chuckled. "I wasn't sure you were real. I've passed this bench three days in a row."
"You....what?" I breathed.
"I saw you the other day. You looked at me like..." He trailed off, suddenly shy. "I don't know. Like you knew me."
My heart tripped over itself.
"I felt the same," I managed to say. "Like I'd met you in a dream or something."
We both laughed. Nervous, amazed, like neither of us could believe this was actually happening.
"I'm Eli," he said offering his hand.
I took it "I'm Lyra"