Crossroads Chapter 2

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1:15am, she gazes out of the window of her fifth floor apartment into the brightly lit street.  "Amazing how people are still up at this time of the night." she wondered out loud.  Back where she came from, the streets are dead by 9pm and only the occasional revelers would pass by, having had too much to drink to even notice the increased decibel level of their voices. 

Her eyes catch a couple as they are walking down the street in front of her window.  The man had his arm around her shoulder while the woman around his waist.  They walk leisurely, using a steady, deliberate gait, taking their time as if not wanting the moment to end.   They are lost in animated conversation and it is quite apparent, even with the distance from where she was, that these two are very much in love. 

"Ah love" she gives a sigh, "such a great deceiver.  It starts off like it can never stop and those feelings are forever, only to find out towards the end, that it just cannot be."  She has had her share of lovers.  Men who at one time or the other promised the impossible, yet she could not resist hearing them out.  All of it ended in tragedy.  "Oh well, hard lessons learned."  she mused. 

Then her thoughts turn to him.  "He's too good to be true."  she dismissed.   "But why do I feel so drawn to him?  So much so, that I feel like melting when I'm with him."  She understands the feelings he provokes in her all too well.  But  her mind tries to suppress it with all her might.  "This must not flourish.  I will not allow it.  I cannot allow it" she declared.  

She dismisses these thoughts by bringing herself back to reality.  A slight drizzle has ensued that quickly became a downpour. The couple that she was observing had started to run for cover, but not before the man takes off his coat and covers her with it.  She then remembers how she feels so much like a woman with him.  Warmth envelopes her whole being, feelings of lightheadedness and fluttery embrace her.  She battles such feelings with her all might, face contorted in concentration. “NO!” she commanded, and they began to subside.  Breathing a sigh of relief, she reaches for the window pane to close it when to her surprise, she saw across the street, a lone jacketed figure standing in the pouring rain, looking up to her open window.