GINA

It was a surprise that I didn't fall to the ground on my way to the apartment with the way tears was pouring over my face and hampering my sight.

I doubt I could get over this heartbreak…this betrayal that had happened to me. I doubt I could heal from this pain gushing in my heart.

I went back to the day I had met Ken for the first time in my life.

That day, it had been raining profusely in New Jersey and so I was stuck in the studio. I usually go there to take music lessons on my days off from work because there was no umbrella with me.

I was dropping my phone in my pocket after a call to my mum who was making it clear to me that she didn't like being in a nursing home when the double glass doors of the studio opened and a guy in a wet black jacket and bulky trousers entered.

"Hey" I had called out because the floor of the studio was not wet with water because of him but he didn't hear me because of the sound of the rain.

"Hey" I shouted again, louder this time startling the few people in the studio and finally reverting the strange attention to me.

He turned his surprised eyes to me and I was rooted where I was, unable to move or say anything because fixed on me right now, were the most expressive and magnetizing blue eyes I had ever seen.

"Hello." His voice was deep and reminded me so well of the thunder clapping outside the studio.

I managed to fight my way out of the denseness that had overcome me and managed to speak. "Water."

"Water?" His brows shot higher in a quizzical response to what I had said.

Oh, gather yourself, Gina. Stop behaving like a blubbering sixteen year old for goodness sake.

After chiding myself, I was able to think and talk coherently.

"You have water splattered all over the place. That is why I called you."

"That is because I am coming in from the rain. You are not so dazzled by me that you can not see or hear that it is raining outside, right?"

I rolled my eyes even as my cheeks burned bright in embarrassment. It was one thing to be gawking over a hot stranger in a public place. It was another thing to be caught doing that.

Oh shit. This was bad.

"Shut up." I said turning away from him to go back to the stool I was sitting on before he came in.

Even though I didn't look back, I knew he was following me.

"So you are gonna lie that you were not captivated by me a moment ago?"

"At least, I can say that you are an egoistic young man. That is not a lie."

I sat down on the tool and looked at him.

He crossed his arms across his chest, a smirk playing across his face.

"Demanding the truth is being egoistic now?"

"Aren't you here to meet someone?"

"Nah, came in here to hide from the striking thunder and rain. I was lucky to see that the door was not locked from inside. And more lucky to see that I, like the thunder is striking someone speechless."

"Well, I hope your luck saves your ass when the owner of the studio comes in to see that you have created quite a puddle on his floor."

The man raised his hand in a gesture to wave the comment aside. "It's nothing a mob and bucket cannot solve."

He looked around and saw a stool not too far away. He grabbed it and dragged it to where I was.

"Since it seems it's going to be raining a while, I might as well be having a conversation with you since you have regained your speech ability."

I rolled my eyes again. "You are not going to get over that, isn't it? And you said you were not egoistic?"

He laughed. It was the first time I was hearing or seeing him laugh. It was a delight watching his face transformed by him laughing, making him look more handsome, his eyes lighting up. His voice was like rolling thunder, delighting my ears with the sound. Watching him was a pleasure.

"You are right," he said. "I can not just get over it. It's not easy to make an adult immobile simply with my sight."

"'It is not easy to make an adult immobile with my sight' is not a term that I thought would refer to me one day. Thank goodness I did not swoon. With the kind of man that you are, I would have died out of mortification."

"Swooning? That would have been a great addition to my portfolio for whatever purpose it will serve."

I rolled my eyes again, this time more dramatically.

That caused him to laugh.

I realized something: I really wanted to make him laugh every time, whoever this guy was.

Shit. I was already liking a guy whose name I didn't even know. I was not drunk or anything like that and neither was this night time so it made no sense to be fancying a stranger this much in broad daylight.

"So what is your name?" He said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Surprised that he had said something along the lines of what I had been thinking, I blinked at him rapidly. "Uh?"

"I have been talking to you for minutes now. I think I should know the name of a girl I had struck speechless."

Yeah, the man was certainly not going to get over it. For some weird reason, I find it cute and not really egotistical like I had said out loud to him. The urge to make him laugh… to see amusement lit up in his blue eyes while he laughed in that amazing bubbled up through her.

Instead of answering him, I clamped my lips shut and made noise from inside my throat while I swung slightly from side to side.

That gave me the satisfaction of hearing his laughter once again.

"Okay, I did not mean that speechless, miss erm—"

I made the sound again and he smiled widely at me.

"My name is Ken. Ken Harrisson."

Ken. I rolled the name over my tongue and realized the name fitted the kind of guy he was.