I waited, watched her, holding my breath through a handful of heartbeats as indecision flickered across her face. But like dawn on the horizon, she smiled.

“All right. Do you have a pen in that soggy briefcase?”

“Better yet, I have one right here.” I slipped a hand into my suit coat to retrieve the pen and slips of paper I always kept there.

Our fingers brushed when she took it, her cheeks flushing feverishly as she jotted down her name and phone number, the letters and numbers half connected, soft and slanting.

I took the paper, sliding it into my pocket with the reverence I’d have given a treasure map. “Can I call you a cab?”

She glanced outside to the drizzling rain. “I think you’ve done enough. You stopped me from skinning my knee or spraining my ankle, and you bought me a coffee. Maybe I should call you one instead.”

“I’ll take the subway, thanks. Next time you need a coffee, let me know.”

“I think I just might,” she said over her shoulder as she walked to the door. But before we reached it, she stopped so suddenly, I almost tripped over her again. “Wait—you haven’t told me your name.”

My smile tilted as I reached around her to open the door. “Marcus.”

Her brows quirked, face cocked like a bird for the briefest of moments before she seemed to shake whatever thought she’d had away. “Well, I hope you don’t wait too long to call, considering I get hungry every night around seven.”

“Are you asking me out, Maisie?” I said with an arch smile, one she answered with the prettiest flush of her cheeks.

“Maybe I am, Marcus.”

We stepped out, facing each other under the awning. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want her to go. Because I had the feeling that the second we parted ways, whatever this was would disappear with nothing left to show for but fairy dust.

“Is tonight too soon?” I asked, eager to dispel the thought, to prove the notion was crazy, and as soon as possible.

“Not at all. Knowing a kind face is at the end of this day might just get me through it.”

“I’ll text you when I’m free and we can firm it up,” I said with a smile, stepping to the curb to hail a cab. When the door was open and she’d slid inside, I held her there for a brief moment, trying to shake the feeling that I shouldn’t let her go.

“It was nice running into you, Marcus.”

“Let’s do it again.”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight,” I said, that immovable smile on my lips. I didn’t think I’d smiled so much in years.

And I shut the cab door and waited in the rain until she was gone.