It was her eyes that I couldn't get over. Somehow they seemed to sparkle. Yeah, I know most every fool with a romantic heart will tell you that 'her eyes sparkled', but with Imrhien, it's literal. I don't know what causes that twinkle - and I ain't never thought to ask - but her eyes get me every time. It's like looking into a still pool with sunlight dancing on the surface. And it's a deep pool, mind. Like to be bottomless if I'm any judge, and I don't know how far the sunlight goes down.
That day, though, I had other things on my mind, like delivering Cody's scrap to the barracks at Eavesdown and finding Miss Suzanne, so I just thought to pass the time o' day again and offer my apologies for my strange antics with the Unlikely earlier. I guess I also hoped to see her again, which led to me trying to act a whole lot more confident than I felt.
Lookin' for a way to ensure that we met again, perhaps even get to know her, I told her about the fights they were setting up at the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone. I'd seen enough of Imrhien to know that she'd be able to handle herself - hell, that she probably liked to go a round or two - an' it seemed to me she was looking to be outta the Drift if she could.
I offered her what, in retrospect, was the crummiest date any guy ever offered any gal. Still, I guess it was so crummy that it probably didn't seem like I was clutching at straws - I mean, who would offer such a crappy business deal? Who am I kidding, I reckon she saw straight through it - not that I mind.
The way I laid the plan out, I wanted her in the ring at the Cockpit fight club to distract the business folks watching while I settled a deal. She's lithe and supple. Not rangy or skinny, but she's got muscle tone that comes with years o' living and working hard and curves that a man would likely kill for. In fact, in retrospect, the idea might o' worked. Doin' business in a noisy place like the Cockpit is hard enough, let alone if the girl in the ring is hotter than a summer weekend on Al Raqis. She might just have distracted them and I might have gotten a better price than if they'd been thinking straight. And if I'd offered for them to meet her... well, I reckon I'd o' gotten a few gold teeth out o' the arrangement too, if you get my meaning.
Anyhow, it was a lame attempt and I felt like an ass; but against all reason, logic and natural laws, she said yes! I ruttin near pissed my pants I was so surprised, but we agreed that the next time I was on the Drift, I'd come find her and take her back to Persephone. With that, I bid her a good day an' wandered back to the Unlikely, my heart racing like some fool schoolboy after his first kiss.
O' course, our next meeting didn't quite work out as I'd suggested, but that's to come. For now, all you need to know is that I gave up on Suzanne and left the world, heading for Persephone and my lonely docking pad.
**
I find as I write this that the memory is fading. I should have put these thoughts down long ago, but time and events sought to keep me from my diary for a time. What I do remember is that from the very first moment, distracted though I was and angry at the dusty ball o' rock that is the Drift, I knew Imrhien was different. Something just clicked inside me when I saw her and I guess, lookin' back, it might o' been the same for her. I don't know for sure. I ain't sayin' I knew how things would end up, but it felt like my life was poised on a precipice and she was either the bridge across, or the gravity pulling me down - and I didn't know which. All I knew was that the life I'd constructed out o' sorrow and fear, alone and isolated in the Unlikely To Fly, was not the life I was meant to have. She opened a door for me. Simple as that...
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