Downtown Portland there was her favorite Irish pub, full folk rock music and black beer, she didn't felt at home because she would not know how to feel at home, but it helped her to remember better times. She was going to meet Hannah Winston later, a girl she had met in her short time in Berkeley and with had formed a deep bond of friendship. She had ordered a beer while waited for her friend and as she didn't allow much time to enjoy herself like that she decided to take her time to taste the sweet beer she just bought, yet it was so good that she ended up drinking it very quick.

Next to her a man wearing a leather jacket and two long scars on his face sat, she watched him for a moment and him reminded her of a boy whom she had met several years before and just smiled when the man returned his face to watch her.

- Now you go along with that - he said in an accent that confuse her a little - let me buy you another one .

- No I'm okay, my friend is just around the corner - or at least she hoped - I do not want to waste your time.

Hannah arrived apologizing for the delay as they moved to a table and she saw the man in the bar passing next to them. Her friend had always been a sort of comfort for her as it was one of the few people who have made her feel normal or at least of those who knew her in depth. Hannah was from a small town in California lived there ever before and since Berkeley, now she was the head of her family's diner making a good use of her management degree.

- This morning I saw Christopher coming out of my building, I can't know for sure if I am the reason of his presence but I have the feeling that I don't want to know.

- You cannot keep running away from it, one day he will find you and then you will have to listen, I know you don't want to, but that have to happen.

- What I need is to be in a quiet place where I don't have to be watching my back all the time.

- If you want a small and predictable place you should move to Charming, there does not reach many new people and you'll feel at home.

It was a tempting option, Christopher had not been the only one of his acquaintances who she had avoided in Portland, but was the only one about who she had told to Hanna. She changed her mind very easily, was cowardly enough to make decisions such and always left to chance to give her a signal that the push her in the direction she needed, she knew she needed something that would make her feel safe going there.

After a while a couple of men approached the girls and offered to buy them a round, both Hannah as she was quite beautiful women, both in their own kind and being in another situation both would have loved to flirt and end the night with some good sex, but that was not the time, she did not feel that way that night and the alcohol alone had put more melancholy, she used to be very cheerful and a little crazy drunk, but this was not the time, so she left Hannah with the boys and left to the parking lot to have a smoke.

She was so drunken that had trouble lightning it on when a man approached, wearing stylish clothes she thought she could just ignore him away, however it did not work, he grabbed her by the waist and then she pushed him without expecting that the drink had made her lose her balance and fell on the floor backwards. The man came to lift her but she saw the guy she'd met at the bar come close and telling him to leave, the man in the fancy clothing responded with an insult that was matched with a fist in his face, he would strike back but stopped when he saw the handgun the other guy carried in his belt.

- Are you okay? - He asked as he helped her stand.

- It's nothing, took me by surprise - the drinks came down fast and now she was angry with herself for the way she reacted.

-You should not be on your own if you have drinks on, you know what happens.

- I never had that happened - told without realizing that she was raising her voice - I'm sorry , you just were helping, I should not have yelled.

The subject helped to light a cigarette for her and lit one for him, then both went to the main street for her to wait a taxi, were silent as the cigarette were finished and then Hannah came a lot more drunk than both of them.

- Oh, hello Chibs, not expect to see you here - said giving him a hug - I see you already know Rose, I hope she come with me to Charming, Rose is my friend ... Chibs I don't remember your name.

- Filip.

- Oh yes, Filip, but to me you're Chibs.

The taxi had arrived and Rose helped Hannah get in as it was a bit complicated to do it at her own, she head back to where it was Chibs and thanked him accompanied by a kiss on the cheek. Rose expected to find the signal and to feel safe on her own and not through another person, but it seems that fate had done more than expected to leave her signal in the hands of a person who lived in the same town as her friend. She had made a decision, would move to Charming.