… Etienne first met Evangeline when she was sitting, attentively, on a park bench in the Public Garden, on an otherwise ordinary morning in late summer. It was already past ten, so the bankers and lawyers that shuttled past did so with some purpose, on their way to meetings where something of importance was likely to transpire … He didn’t really meet Evangeline on that first encounter. His eyes met her. Her eyes were focused on the walking path nearest her, and she parceled out her attention equally to each person who approached from either side. She was waiting for someone. She wasn’t anxiously waiting for someone, or impatient, or worried. Just waiting, serenely undisturbed, as if it could take all day … Etienne was on a different walkway, further afield from the one crossing in front of her bench, so she didn’t notice his passing. But he noticed her non-passing. Everyone has a particular taste in the opposite gender, a set of features they find compelling – a vision they find it hard to turn away from. Evangeline hit this bullseye exactly. He couldn’t turn away.