Sick of the Sunsets

Hannah was sat in one of Boston's countless Starbucks, holding a caramel cappuccino close in her mittened hand.

She revelled in the fact that it was raining. The side walk was flooding over, the excess water running in streams down onto the roads, the tires of taxi cabs and other vehicles spraying passers by, who rushed past, holding their coats up close to their necks and bending their heads down low.

Hannah was just about to get lost in her thoughts and plans, when a loud crash pulled her out of her anxieties and reveries.

A young man had fallen over Hannah's bag, which she had placed as close to her as possible, attempting to keep it out of the other customers way. However a dark hair young man had at present gotten his foot caught on the bag's strap and fell face forward, the coffee and he previously been holding spilled all over the floor and the colour in the young man's cheeks rose as he heaved himself up, swearing profusely.

"I'm so sorry!" Hannah proclaimed as she jumped up from her seat to help the young man right himself up.

"Nah it's fine, my bad. Always been clumsy," the young man protested as his cheeks flooded crimson.

Paul DiGiovanni had been trying to keep his cool up so bad. He had seen the pretty blonde sitting by the window when he was buying his latte, he had been desperately trying to catch her eye and illicit a smile from her, but her eyes had been firmly fixed out the window, captivated by the rainfall.

It had not been his plan to fall at her feet but it sure did catch her attention.

Paul stood up to brush the cookie crumbs of his tight jeans and pulled his grey hoodie straight and swore when he saw a dark coffee stain on the right sleeve.

"At least let me buy you a coffee?" Came the offer from Hannah.

Although putting up a fight, Paul was more than happy to be invited to have a coffee by the pretty blonde. She joined the queue and moments later came back with a latte and offered Paul the seat opposite her.

He did not need to be told twice.

Paul guessed at once that she wasn't a local to Boston. She was too tanned for a city where it snowed and rained. He guessed California. And the massive bag with luggage tags also laid claims to the fact that she had had a journey behind her.

When Paul laid this truth forward Hannah was surprised as to it's accuracy, and delighted by it too.

She explained that she had just left California and had arrived in Boston only two hours ago. In reply to Paul's question "Where are you staying?" she only replied with the truth.

"I don’t know," was her answer that came with a heart-stopping smile.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Paul's exasperation and surprise was evident. "You don't have friends or family in Boston?"

Hannah only shook her head.

"I just see where this place takes me," was the explanation that she offered.

"Well that won't do," Paul simply said. "You can stay with me until you find a place." He offered genuinely.

He could tell that Hannah was a little reserved and cautious to this offer.

"I know you don't know me and I could be some psycho for all you know, but you need a place to stay and I'm sharing an apartment with my best friend and his girlfriend so you won't get lonely."

Hannah thought about it for a moment, but the offer seemed one too good to refuse. It would let her get her feet sorted and if she stayed away from all the main hotels it meant that it would be far more difficult for anybody from home to find her.

"Okay then, why not?" Hannah said with the same heart stopping smile that stayed with Paul DiGiovanni for the whole day and haunted his dreams that same evening.