crash.

experience allowed her to foreshadow her heart's future.
she could feel it coming towards her before she ever saw it.
she would feel the rattle in her bones, look up, and watch it approach.
a swift sweep across the horizon. a tidal wave.
coming for her.
and she was helpless.
simply had to float there and await its impact.
most of the time she could find land before it submerged her.
she learned to read the signs.

but this, this one, was a silent wave.
slow and steady.
this was altogether something new. different.
this had caught her by total surprise.
she turned around, there it was.

and her intuition was blurred by his captivating demeanor.
mischievous side glances.
a carefree disposition. convoluted conversation.
long eyelashes sprawled over eyes that showed years of always getting what they wanted.  

her head should've caught up to her heart.
he was good. cunning, almost.
unequivocal. quietly radiating.
intriguing.
insouciant.
and she wanted to touch it.
she wanted to reach out.
place palm against chest.
to know it with her fingertips.
to let the burn transform her cynicism into ash.

but she knew.

wherever--however the attraction began.
despite pure intentions, it carried in it the seeds of heartbreak.
and she had loved so often. outwardly. in so many directions at once.
been forced to patch her heart together with nothing but scraps of twine and discarded thread.
and so she couldn't imagine.
couldn't imagine how heartbreak was not the inevitable end.

so, she closed her mouth. stopped talking. bent her head as he approached.
tried desperately to preserve what little she had.

and yet.
she wondered.
if he might show her.
an alternate ending.