"Liz! If you had seen him! He was so hot with his hair all messy and his eyes were so intense, I mean, the way he looked at me, I thought I would just die! And his hands, God! When he gave me that paper, they were so warm and..."

"Maria!" Liz exclaimed, interrupting her friend's rambling.

"What?" Maria replied, almost in the same tone.

"It's just that... You promised you wouldn't go!"

"I promised I wouldn't let anything bad happen." Maria stated. "And I will keep that promise, I promise." She smiled proudly at her best friend who returned the smile with not too much confidence.

*******

Michael sat in his apartment, looking at his still white canvas, playing thoughtfully with his paintbrush. Ever since he had met this colorful girl, his mind had been so filled up by her light... He hadn't been able to paint or draw anything. He closed his eyes, trying to recreate perfectly every curves of her face. There was something about it, something that made it so much more interesting than all the other faces he had painted. And he had painted a lot of them. He had explored so many faces, in their every details... and so many bodies by the same way.

But it was different with her. She was... refreshing! She made him think of the lightning. They always came when it was so dark and clouded and they just made everything brighter around for the instant they flashed in the sky. He only wished the instant wasn't so short, 'cause it was so quickly gone that he couldn't quite picture what it really looked like. That was it! He hadn't been around her long enough, and now he was stuck with incomplete flashes of her. He wished he could go back to that night and freeze everything just long enough to learn every single one of her colors by heart. Especially that green in her eyes... And that light tone of pink on her cheeks.

*******

The sky was dark and clouded. People were hurrying up so they would not be caught by the storm. On the corner of the street, a young woman with particular green eyes and pink cheeks was waiting for the pedestrian signal. She impatiently put her hair back behind her ear and shivered. It was colder than she had thought. The little white man finally lighted up and she went on her way quickly. She glanced nervously at the little piece of paper in her hand and let out a big sigh when she saw the same number above the door of a building. The stairs made noise under her feet. Apartment 7. There it was. She knocked lightly on the wooden door, closing briefly her eyes, trying to contain her excitement.

The door slowly opened on him. She saw what seemed to be surprise crossed his eyes, but it quickly disappeared to be replaced by something else... A spark. He ran his hand through his hair already stiffened by the colored paint. She smiled.

"Am I disturbing you, or something?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

He looked at her for a moment, wondering if she was just another of his flashes. But the vision was too perfect this time, and she was still there, staring at him, waiting for an answer.

"Come in." He said simply, opening the door wider.

Maria entered his apartment and it was like she was entering inside his world. The room was full of colors, most of all dark ones. There was pictures and drawings and paintings everywhere around, in no particular order, or if there was order, she didn't quite understood it. She turned to look at him and once again he was staring at her that way. The way he had when she had first met him. She sucked in her breath and was surprise to feel so at ease under his intense gaze.

"So, you wanted me, here I am! What are you planning to do with me?" She asked before realizing what she was saying and how it might sound to him.

"I still want to paint you."