Prologue
Bella set her book aside. Swiping three fingers across her left cheek, she pondered upon how many times she had read this. Montague and Capulet. Love in its most tragic form. Young love. Forbidden, traumatic and impossible.
The train came to a stop on 72nd Street and Bella stared on the ground as the doors opened. Although the pneumatic rattling made its presence known, she never looked up. Farther uptown, she turned page after well-worn page as she did every evening at this time.
The man sitting next to her shifted, his thigh grazing her stocking clad one briefly. "A bit sad for a train ride, isn't it?", he said when she looked up through her overgrown fringe. All she saw was his chin jutting towards her book. Glancing up further, she was met by inquisitive, teasing eyes. Green. Like a forrest grown.
"Um…" She had never been known to easy conversation, and wondered when during her journey had he joined her side.
The stranger raised a singular eyebrow, he seemed to be waiting for an answer.
She didn't have one.
He opened his mouth, closed it again, before finally taking a deep breath in, saying, "I'm Edward".
"Oh…" was all she could offer.
A smile grew on his face, hard to tell, but it seemed lopsided from this angle. The word 'rakish' came into her mind, but before she could offer her name, the train lurched to a standstill. Her stop. Almost by auto-pilot, Bella threw herself into the crowd, dashing forth, always with a slight fear of being left behind closed doors if she didn't push her way through. Unbeknownst to her, she had left the stranger a souvenir.
It wasn't until she reached her street, tucked away in a corner of Harlem, did she realize her scarf was missing.