I glanced over at her as I passed her by, half-hoping that she wouldn't be looking back at me, and half-hoping that she would be.

She was.

I was too drunk to really be sure of anything that night, so I couldn't tell you if she was looking at me or past me. What I can tell you is that even if I'd been sober I probably would have been too busy looking at her to notice anything but her. My eyes first noticed how her long amber hair had been twisted into a braided ponytail that was draping forward over her right shoulder, then they drifted up the braid to the blue gauzy scarf enveloping her head and shoulders that made her look decidedly unreal as she basked in the moonlight. She was leaning up against the grainy stone monument behind her, and the light and shadows were playing about her such that even her skin seemed to have a hint of blue, accentuating the deep blue of her eyes all the more. As far as her face was concerned, the only non-blue color on her at all was the deep and inviting cherry red of her lips.

I told myself that strangers do not approach other strangers when walking in the park after midnight, particularly when one of those strangers was as drunk as I was. She might be an on-duty cop trying to lure out rapists, and wouldn't that be a fun little misunderstanding? Or even worse, she might be a hooker, and that would lead to an entirely different sort of misunderstanding and awkwardness, made all the worse because I'd spent all my money at the bar, which is why I was walking home instead of taking a cab in the first place. Nope, the best plan was definitely to keep walking, go home and sleep the alcohol off. It was asking for enough trouble just by being out on foot this late anyway, and it would be flat out stupid to double down on the risk I was already taking.

That's what my brain told me.

My feet, however, were already in the process of following another set of commands originating from a different organ entirely. I'd like to think that organ was my heart and not necessarily the organ south a ways from there, but even now I can't be certain of that.

Like I said, I was too drunk to really be sure of anything that night.

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