Chapter 1: The Great Crosswalk Standoff
Lena Hunter had one goal in mind that rainy Thursday morning: to make it to her meeting without having a complete meltdown. She was already running late after a coffee spill (don’t ask), a broken umbrella (again, don’t ask), and the fact that her favorite jacket now smelled like wet dog.
But at least she had the crosswalk in her favor. Or so she thought.
The moment the light turned green, Lena stepped forward, her heels clicking against the wet pavement. She was so close to winning the race against time when—bam—she collided with a solid wall of human, stopping dead in her tracks.
“Oh my—!” she started, but her words were cut off as she looked up.
It was him. Him. The guy who had just narrowly avoided her in the coffee shop line earlier this week. The one with the kind of face that made her immediately want to be anywhere but in his path.
He was tall, dark-haired, and very much a human inconvenience today. Not that she was annoyed or anything.
“Sorry!” Lena said in a rush, glancing at the “Don’t Walk” sign blinking at her. She took a step back, but instead of stepping aside, he just stood there. Looking at her like she was the one who had invaded his personal space.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked, crossing his arms with a frown.
Lena blinked. “Excuse me?”
He looked her up and down—definitely not checking her out, more like analyzing her, like she was some sort of puzzle he was just starting to figure out. “You were about to jaywalk. You’ve got to wait for the light. It’s not rocket science.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were a traffic cop on your lunch break. But hey, thanks for the public service announcement, officer.”
“I’m not a cop,” he replied, raising an eyebrow. “But you were about to break the law.”
“Are you seriously telling me to wait for a light in this weather? I’m gonna be soaked by the time the light turns,” Lena shot back, flicking her wet hair out of her face. “I’ve got places to be, okay?”
His lips twitched into a tiny smile. “Yeah? You seem like the kind of person who has no time for anything. Too busy to wait for the signal, too busy to… I don’t know, maybe not walk into random people?”
She glared at him. “You’re lucky I’m too busy for this right now.”
And then, because life hated her, the light finally turned green. The crowd behind them started moving, and the crosswalk became a full-on human traffic jam. Lena decided she’d had enough of this very attractive, very smug stranger and just walked around him, practically elbowing him in the ribs.
“Excuse me,” she muttered under her breath.
He didn’t even flinch.
