Finally//Beautiful Stranger

Prologue

New Year's Eve party, loft apartment.

There are string lights with small paper lanterns strung up in the apartment and out onto the balcony. A fire is burning in the gas fireplace with a huge flat screen above showing New Year's Rockin' Eve, but no one is really watching. 

Eve is talking to her friends, looks up and notices a man across the room. He's laughing with his friends, drink in hand. He's gangling, reserved and goofy. He is very tall with long dark hair and pale skin. She watches him from afar, pretending to listen to what her friends are saying. Eventually, she sees this man go to the snack bar and tells them, "There's a snack at the food table I'm really interested in. I'll be right back." She sidles up next to him at the snack bar, making a funny remark about the cheese ball in the middle of the table. He laughs, and she's smitten. They chat at for a bit until someone comes up and asks them to move so he can get to the Chex Mix. They laugh, the man says sorry and backs away from the bowl with apologetic gestures. The man looks at Eve and says something about needing to go check on a friend at the party who just got dumped. She says she understands and goes back to her friends. "What was that about?" her friend Tasha asks her. "She's been looking at him all night, Tash," says their other friend and Eve's roommate, Lindsey. "You mean you didn't notice?" "Lindsey, you know I'm oblivious to everything!" Tasha retorts. Later, Eve notice's the man's friend passed out drunk in a chair in a corner. Everyone gathers in the living room to watch the ball drop. There are so many people at this party, they're all crammed into this loft like sardines. There's pushing and commotion and as the countdown gets to "five....four..." Eve looks up and sees the man next to her. "Three...two...one...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" Everyone starts kissing their significant other. Man looks at Eve, gives a small, warm wave, she reciprocates. "Should we??" She asks, he gives her a soft smile and shrugs. They exchange a small kiss on the lips. He and Eve pull away, pausing for a moment, searching each other's eyes. The whole world has disappeared and it's just them for a minute. He leans in to go back in for more, but Eve's friends pull her away. "Come on!! We need to go now before the Lyft rates skyrocket!" Eve and the man stare at each other as she's leaving.

They get in the rideshare, and her friends start peppering her with questions about who the Man was. "Well, we met earlier getting snacks and then just happened to be next to each other at midnight and...what else were we supposed to do? It's New Year's, you have to kiss someone." Her girlfriends all start talking at once:

"He could have a girlfriend!"

"He could be MARRIED!!"

"You could have herpes now."

"How bold to kiss someone you don't know."

"What's his name?"

This makes her pause. She realizes she didn't get his name. "I....I don't know."

"How do you not know?"

"We didn't get that far."

"You literally kissed someone and didn't know their name."

Annoyed, she shoots back "I'll text Alexa tomorrow and ask. She should know."