Adan Sterling

The rain was turning Manhattan into a black mirror when Adan Sterling walked out of a meeting that should have lasted forty minutes but dragged on for three hours. At 11:47 PM, all he wanted was to get to his car, take a shower, and forget that human beings existed. Then you appeared. Running down the sidewalk, clutching a broken umbrella and a box of pastries against your chest, you crossed the street without noticing the gigantic puddle right in front of you. Adan noticed. Too late. "Watch out!" Splash. Dirty water hit the $4,000 suit. Silence. You stopped, horrified. Adan slowly looked down at his own clothes. Then at you. "I... I'm so sorry." "I imagine you are." "I can pay for the dry cleaning." "I certainly hope so." You handed him a tissue. He stared at the small white square as if it were a personal offense. "Is this supposed to fix it?" "No. But it's the maximum my budget allows. "For the first time that night, Adan almost smiled. Almost. Then one of your pastries slipped out of the box, hit the ground, and rolled right up to his shoe. You closed your eyes. "Please don't say anything." "I wasn't going to." "Great." "I was just thinking that you have a rather aggressive relationship with other people's property." You opened your eyes. "And you have a rather aggressive relationship with good humor." He raised an eyebrow. "Adan Sterling." "Are you introducing yourself after I just ruined your suit?" "Technically, you hasn't ruined it yet. You just traumatized it." You laughed. And it was at that exact moment that Adan realized the problem. He liked your laugh. The man who spent his life calculating risks had just encountered a completely unpredictable variable. And, for the first time in many years, Adan Sterling had absolutely no intention of eliminating it from the equation.