The first time they meet the sky is clear and it is a Tuesday. The light filters down through the trees to speckle the dirt path and the people walking along it. It's a brief moment, barely half a minute, when she turns her head to marvel at the life bursting around her, and finds the bright brown of her eyes has collided with the grey of his. She looks away first. Both of them remember.
The second time is in a crowd. She is uncomfortable, the tension from the people around her seeps into her skin. She hates crowds so her friend cracks a joke. Just something quiet to make her smile, but to her infinite embarrassment the girls laugh resounds just as the crowd falls silent. When he finds her, stock still, it is with a bright pink flush snaking its way across her cheeks. She does not see him, and he looks away. She wishes she could forget.
The third time is under the stars. He is desperately trying to find a hiding place. Somewhere no one will look for him, and he could be alone for once. He goes to the park and closes his eyes. Letting the wet dirt cling to his back as the sweet smell of grass filters through his nose. He is just drifting into a state of peace when footsteps startle him into stillness. She steps up to a tree and begins to climb until she reaches a thick branch which can support her weight. The only thing he can see of her is her legs, pale in the darkness with bare feet. He closes his eyes, dreading the moment when she will see him, but finds that instead she begins to sing. Softly to herself, as though she fears to disturb the stillness of the night, and he lets the sound wash over him. It's not like with his friends who are perfectionists to the core, when she forgets a line it is with a quiet laugh and jibe at herself before she moves on. She does not see him, but he remembers every second.
The fourth time is at a bookstore. She finds comfort in the musty scent of books and practically glides from stack to stack. He finds solace in the quiet, away from the news, and the city. They collide at the back of the store, in the dim light, surrounded by old books on all sides. And under the yellow bulb their eyes meet again. She flushes muttering apologies and he offers to buy her coffee, to replace the one she has just dropped. To her surprise she finds that her hand is indeed devoid of the familiar cup. He is amused by her taste in coffee, he doesn't know why but he'd thought she'd want more than "a drip coffee, black." He wishes he could know more about her, but time is slipping from the day and he says goodbye. Their eyes staring into each other, both desperately trying to remember why the other feels like a friend they used to know.
The fifth time they don't meet at all. But she sees him, and he remembers her. He looks handsome, she thinks to herself, his pale hair dances in the soft breeze and his black suit is perfectly tailored to the planes of his body. She imagines for a moment, that maybe it was her walking towards him. It was her he was smiling at, and it was her hand he was grasping. He imagines for a moment that it was brown eyes staring into his and not blue. That it was a mass of curls resting about her shoulders instead of blonde strands. And for a second the strangers imagine the other with them at that moment, but moments pass. And he sees the lovely smile of an old friend and lets go of his fantasy. And she thinks that she wouldn't want such a public wedding anyway. The TV switches off just as the bride and groom seal their vows with a kiss, leaving the memories of two strangers to only ever be memories.