He gazed down at his leather- clad feet, repelling rain back into its anxious puddles. Bloated droplets danced off of his crimson umbrella, his shield, back to the cracked, thirsty pavement and into the hungry gutters. A glimpse of white flashed before him, disrupting his robot-trance. Trailing in front of him was a blonde business goddess, unsheathed from the crying city sky. Stilettos splashing shamelessly, mascara running down her face, she marched on. And he couldn’t avert his eyes. Who was she, this dignified beauty, crusading amid the towering bricks in the forecasted down pour alone?

He precariously stepped beside her, balancing his ruby red savior above her frame. Distracted from her reveries, she looked at him with accusing, raccoon-rimmed brown eyes. They softened when she recognized concern in his. The pair walked in silence, close but not touching, neither daring to say a word. The rain pattered, and faded, and the afternoon shower bid farewell. And still they walked on, masked in the red shadow of the umbrella, to find themselves. After all, they had found each other.