He ran into her on Monday morning on the cobblestone sidewalk in front of the Library. He wasn’t expecting to see her there, and it was one of the few times he’d ever encountered her without spotting her from far off. Despite his surprise, he smiled broadly and walked over.
She looked terrible (which was hard for her to do). She looked like she hadn’t slept since he’d last seen her. There were dark circles under her eyes and a frown on her face.
But Zach’s smile and the love that lay behind it never missed a beat despite her incriminating look. There was nothing she could do to drive him away or lessen his devotion. Without a word, he reached out and brushed her cheek with a gentleness from some other realm, as if he were cradling the most precious object in the universe—which he was.
She said, “We have to talk.”
He said, “O.K.”
She said, “Can I come by your apartment this afternoon?”
He said, “Sure.” His fingertips still brushed her cool cheek with the lightest of touches—almost as if imagined, almost as if not there at all.
“See you then,” she said.
He lowered his hand.
She walked away.
When she’d got up that morning (after a sleepless night), when she’d arrived on campus, when she’d seen him from a ways off, Becca’d fully decided to tell Zach it wasn’t going to work, to find the right opportunity to break off their relationship. But then she saw how he looked at her there on the sidewalk in front of the Library, how he’d touched her like he was touching an angel. No one had ever looked at her like that, touched her like that. No one else would ever look at her like that, touch her like that. Then she knew—this man will never hurt me.
When Becca met Zach at his apartment that afternoon, the first thing she said was, “Can I keep a change of clothes here, a toothbrush, some shampoo?”
He said, “Of course.”
She turned around, walked out to her car, and brought back her overnight bag.