Timing is Everything

He would watch her from behind a street post. He would watch her from the backseat of his car. He would watch her from the bench in the park when she would stroll right by, so close that he could smell a cashmere musk that pushes through the cherry-rose scent of her perfume. He was obsessed. And like many a man before him, a woman would be his undoing.

There was nothing healthy by the way Colby would commit so much time to a person and not even garner the strength to talk to her. She was several leagues above him on the social ladder and he knew it. But like any stalker, Colby did know her name and several other details about this woman that he couldn’t get out of his mind. The bottle of Creed Carmina parfum that he kept on his nightstand didn’t help to forget her existence in the slightest. But he would never forget that she was real and that she possessed everything that he found attractive in a woman.

There had been many women that had stepped across the threshold of Colby’s residence in the past. He had a taste for every skin, hair, and size of woman at one point or another over the past several years. Most of these woman were just a moment in his life to see what he was the best fit with. He settled on straight dark hair and a tanned, olive based skin. He dimensions were perfectly balanced but not magazine perfection. She had to have something extra in the bottom back that helped to balance out the extra in the top front that Colby viewed as perfect. Her bottom lip had to pout at a relaxed point, but her smile would stretch and show a happiness that was authentic. Her eyes had to not be as dark as one would expect, but should be a hazel that changed when different amounts or types of lights would hit them.

The eyes were the hardest part for Colby to decide on. This was not an easy find and he even tried to have a previous interest wear contacts to gain the look that would have finalized his desire. But that was the exact moment that this woman caught his attention and he realized that she was perfect in every way possible. The only thing was that she was too perfect for him. So he did what any good man would do, and followed her for the next few days.

He discovered many things in the first few days of his tracking of her. He found out that her name was Katherine. She lived alone in a apartment that was either on the sixth or eighth floor of a secured building. He knew that she would have a plain latte each morning and only take four sips of it before throwing it in a trash can on her way to her job. And due to security issues, he presumed that she worked in either a law firm or a talent agency in a building on the upper west side of the city.

He knew that she ate the same meals on each weekday and would typically skip dinner altogether most nights. On Mondays she would have a salad at lunch and would bring her own dressing that she would spray on each bite. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she would get either a hot dog or a falafel from a cart, only eating a few bits before throwing it way. Wednesdays and Fridays were dedicated to Sushi that she would go through almost a ritual to eat each piece. Saturdays was a late lunch at an Italian place around the corner from her apartment and Sundays she stayed inside most of the time.

She would walk around the block and head into a park most evenings. She spent a lot of time on her phone while she walked and would stop periodically to move it around as if her reception was lost. But the thing he noticed most when she was moving around was that she never seemed to get angry and always seemed to smile. To Colby, this made her even more attractive than she already was.

Colby was now going on three months of following her around and he had a plan on how to make his first contact with her. He played through a thousand scenarios in his head to find what he figured would be his best chance at getting her attention. He collected several items that he needed and had to make sure his timing was perfect.

His goal was to get a small dog and let go of its leash before she started her walk through the park. He would call for the dog and Katherine would be close enough to grab the leash. She would smile at the dog and reflect that smile towards Colby who would run up with gratitude on his face. And when their eyes met, there would be a shocked look on his face, as if he had just seen an angel. He would thank her and offer to buy her dinner, which she would politely decline. So he would thank her again and walk off into the sunset with his dog.

Katherine would continue her walk and head to her sushi place. When she walks in, Colby and his dog would be sitting in a booth that she would have to pass. Colby would offer her a seat and she would have to accept. They would eat and talk and leave all together. This is how it should have happened, but it ididn’t.

Instead, the dog ran away from Katherine. Colby tried to catch the dog, but it ran out of the park and into a field of traffic. Colby could do nothing but watch as the dog bounced and tumbled from one vehicle to on-coming cars the other direction. He turned quickly away to see what happened with Katherine, but she was gone.  Colby had already made plans for the sushi place, and when he got there, Katherine was already there, sitting at the bar having what must have been saki.

Colby started to turn to leave but before he made it halfway around, he heard the voice that he was so looking forward to hearing an hour ago. Now it was choppy and filled with sharp peaks between the saki induced slurs.

“Hey! You’re da guy with the lil’ dog, right?” Before he could do anything else, Katherine continued. “I have a few things I have to tell ya about.”

Colby turned back towards her and gave her a confused look and pointed a question at his own chest.

“Yeah, you!’ she popped. Colby knew that whatever he hoped to salvage from this chance encounter was not going to happen. And although he wanted to run away,  he did feel like he owed it to her to hear her out. ”First, though,” she paused and gave her head a quick shake, “I want you to walk me home.” And a little hiccup came out from her gut.

Colby waited for her to get her wits and her items and meet him at the door. She put one hand on the inside of his arm and walked with him through the door and into the darkened sidewalk. Colby started to go left which was the direction that her apartment was, but she pulled his arm and guided him to the right. They walked down the empty sidewalk next to the busy street. She would stagger and he would touch her hand in his arm and guide her back towards him.

As the made it to the middle of the next block, Katherine began to tell him more about herself. “I had a best friend,” she paused for a hiccup, “we looked a lot alike.”

“You have a friend that looks like you?” Colby said curiously.

“Had. I had a friend that looked like me.” She staggered towards the empty building that lined the sidewalk. “But she took her own life when a man used her and tossed her away like garbage.”

Colby started to correct Katherine’s balance and she tensed her body and gave him a heavy shove towards the busy road. They had barely made it past the junction box when Colby lost his balance and started to fall into the street.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Kather said with sobered distain, “you might just get it.”

And as Colby gazed upon her beautiful hazel eyes, a city bus clipped his head and with a pop, everything went black.