It was simply not her day. Not that it was all bad, just frustrating. Every turn seemed to produce yet another reason for her to have stayed in bed. That had been what she really wanted to do, but as is par for the course, life beckoned her to fufill her obligations. Little did she know, that her world as she knew it, was never going to be the same again.

It happened in a way a person would least expect a life altering situation would happen. After the vestiges of the day had about taken their final toll on her, it was all she could to keep from crying. It was the last straw to have discovered she had locked her keys in the car. She stood there, eyes closed and hands clenched. This is an effort to keep the tears from falling. Not that it did any good as they began their silent cascade down her cheeks.

"Hey, are you okay?"

came a voice from somewhere that she wasn't. She opened her eyes to see the most beautiful face ever created on God's Green Earth. She closed her eyes again. This was not happening to her. It couldn't be. Again came the question:

"Are you okay?"

Slowly she opened her eyes again to see a hand waving up and down in front of her. That stunning vision was still there. His features were perfectly aligned on a face angels would be jealous of. In fact, he had the face of an angel. She knew then, actually from her first look of him, that he'd touched her soul and she no longer had any control of what was happening.

3:52:49 PM

4:04:40 PM

She took in all that she was seeing and let the image fixate itself in her mind. From his shining blue eyes to his silken au-blonde hair, there was no doubt in the world that he was made to complete perfection. His face was flushed and there was more than a little concern eminating from it. He looked at her and she looked down. How could she be so inclined to look in the face of such beauty? He put his hand on her arm and she shivered. Involuntary as it was, she wished she hadn't done so.

"Could you please say something, so I know you're okay?"

he asked and she wondered why he seemed so moved to care. They were, after all, stangers to one another. Why should he want to know if she was okay? Yet, she wanted to appease him, wanted to take that look of concern away from his delicate angel face. She pulled herself from her reverie and said:

"I'll be fine. I just need a minute. Thank you."

He then said:

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

She looked at him. Her eyes widened as her tears began again. Why? Why was this person being so compassionate toward her? The day had already had enough unanswered questions to it. She just wanted to go home and forget about it while watching the Discovery channel. And she couldn't stop crying. She wanted to make him think that she was okay and yet her tears would not be stifled.

He was looking at her, his blue eyes big and staring. He said to her:

"What's wrong? You can talk to me. I know we don't know each other, but sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger than it is to someone you know."

She was incredulous. There he stood, all of 17 possibly 18 years old, acting more mature than half the people she knew that were twice his age. She said to him:

"You're amazing. Are you always this caring toward people you don't know?"

He smiled then and she felt a zillion emotions swirl through her. He had her. There was no question about that. She didn't know it then, but she would come to realize that that was the moment she fell in love with him. He answered her:

"Nah. I was always taught not to talk to strangers."

This caused her to laugh and she could see him visibly relax. There they stood. Connected in ways neither of them could understand at the time, but would soon find out just how intense that connection was.

"Nice to see you laughing"

he said and she smiled.

"I guess that is better than the water works I was displaying, huh? Still, if you were told not to talk to strangers..."

She let her words trail off. He was right in front of her. She hadn't realized he had moved closer to her. She shivered again and lamented the fact that she could not understand why he had that affect on her. She could only hope that he didn't notice.

"You looked so upset. I couldn't just walk by and not see if you were okay."

No sooner was that spoken that he said:

"Are you all right? You just shivered. Are you cold?"

So much for the not noticing. She didn't want him to know he was affecting her so. She steeled herself to look into his brilliant blue eyes and said:

"It's just the situation. I locked my keys in my car. You come along so incredibly sweet and I feel kind of silly for having lost it a little. I'm just trying to take it all in and not lose it some more."

How she managed to say all of that while looking into his eyes was far beyond any kind of knowledge she had. He was looking right back at her. Really listening as she spoke. A look of contemplation on his beautiful face, he queried:

"You locked your keys in your car?"

She nodded, unable to speak.

"No wonder you're so upset." he stated almost empahtically "I can help you with that. Hold on a second, okay?"

She nodded again. Words weren't coming anyway. Not after those intense blue eyes were locked on hers for that amount of time...

4:45:59 PM