A/N: For Adrenaline Write. So sorry for the long wait. I do hope you enjoy this drabble.
Fanfic50 #38: Effect.
"Benjamin Barker," he says the first time they meet, offering his hand, smiling. "I'd like to rent the room above your shop."
Nellie accepts his hand. "So long as you can pay."
She doesn't faint or forget to breathe when she first sees him. Save for admiration at how he laughs at her frank reply rather than become affronted at her being unusually brash for a woman, she feels nothing.
Falling in love isn't instantaneous. It's a slow dawning, an unhurried light turning on, an internal beacon unnoticed until its raw rays consume the soul.
And then she feels everything.