It was pretty slippery, so I couldn’t run fast, but there were a lot of people doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, so I hoped that that would be enough , but I didn’t count on it. He’d proven before that he could find me in a crowd of freaking 40 000 people. I really wondered if he had some sort of track system to find me. Okay, I really should stop thinking about that, I had other things to worry about, not falling being one of them. And I didn’t succeed. I fell on my knees and for a few moments, I couldn’t catch my breath anymore. After a few moments, I got up, and wanted to continue to run, but I couldn’t. I never knew that falling on ice could be so painful. I continued for a little while, but eventually I sat down in a porch of… Well, I didn’t really care, so I didn’t bother to check. Great, what was going to happen now? I couldn’t stay here forever. Well, I could, but I didn’t really want to freeze to death. I pulled up the hood of my jacket and hoped I’d just disappear. Nobody seemed to notice me. If they did, they were probably too busy shopping to care. I sighed. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

I didn’t know him, but he was seriously the first person to even acknowledge my presence, let alone to ask me if I was okay. “You must be freezing. Come on.” The guy helped me up. “What…” “Starbucks is only a block away. You look like you need it.” I smiled shyly.

It was nice and cosy in the Starbucks. I sat and took my jacket off while… Random-guy-who-hasn’t-told-me-his-name-yet got us coffee. After five minutes he took place opposite of me. He gave me my cup, with my name on it. Wait, I hadn’t told him my name, how… “I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Marcus.”