Before he spoke, his eyes did.

He looked lost, his black hair ruffled like feathers, his shoulders slumped in defeat, his feet tapping impatiently but his eyes; his cerulean eyes whispered the secrets you could never decipher. They were fascinating, they were an enigma.

He was lost but if you looked into his eyes, it seemed like you could find yourself in them.

"Can I help you?" I asked him, walking up to him. People weren't too keen on helping each other in New York City, let alone helping a stranger walking around in a faded hoodie who looked like a lost puppy.

Looking like a lost puppy here could mean two things, either the person in question was truly lost, or they were on the run from the law. Almost ninety percent of the time, the second option was the case.

He had a lean frame covered by the evidence of a rather careless fashion sense. He was out of breath, periodic inhales and exhales reverberating from his body, shaking his frame. When he looked at me, it almost seemed like he almost didn't see me at first.

Then, a sigh of relief escaped his suspiciously pink lips and he said "I am sorry, I was distracted. But yes, maybe you can help, that is only if you are willing to do so." He moved a hand through his hair, pulling back the stray lock of hair which had decided to rest on his forehead. His hair was this semi-curly mass of black which I liked much more than my own plain, straight, brown hair.

"Of course," I said. "How can I help you?"

"My dog, Lucy. She ran away while I was looking the other way. I can't find her. I have looked everywhere." He said. It looked like he had.

His forehead was covered with beads of sweat and he was still breathing as if air was a rare commodity and could disappear at any moment.

Maybe that was true. Maybe it was a rare commodity but surely not for him, for the others. He seemed like the kind of man who could make anyone breathless, that is, if he invested in some decent clothing.

"What does the dog look like? Does she have a collar?"

"Yes, she is a chow dog. Blue collar, bearing her name around her neck." He said. "This is the last place I saw her."

"Well, I'll help you look." I said. It's not like I had anything better to do anyway. There was the pile of files on my desk waiting to be sorted but that could wait. I inwardly cringed at the thought of those files. Ruth was a truly despicable and ruthless boss.

"Oh, you'll do that for me? Thank you, thank you so much." He said, with a smile of relief.

I blinked.

Was this the same man?

Just a single smile made the doubt, uncertainty and the being-a-lost-puppy thing vanish. I was standing before a man who looked like perfection incarnate and my cheeks decided to react before I could stop them. I covered my cheek with my hand, discreetly trying to cover the heavy blush creeping on my face.

Note to self: Never watch hot guys smile. Better yet, never watch guys smile in general. You know how much of a sucker you are for a cute smile. Smiles have the lethal power to penetrate your resting dog face and convert it into a bed of roses.

Control your feelings, Tristan. This is not the time to go off pining after another man. Not after how you left things with Martin.

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my eyes anywhere but on this modern-day Adonis' face. God, who in the world had that good a jawline? This was sorcery! Blasphemy!

One of the things I had learnt from my breakup with Martin was that hot guys should be declared illegal. Nothing good could ever come out of a hot guy.

Either they were gullible fools not aware of their own hotness, turning out to be just a pretty face or they were all too aware of their hotness and used it as a weapon to get anything they wanted. Or they just wouldn't look at a guy like me because they were freaking straight! Had to thank Ian for that last one.

This man's voice was like the soft, rumbling rattle of raindrops on your roof. A comfort one has known since childhood and it was his voice that brought me back from my thoughts.

"So, shall we?" He said. He blinked again. He seemed a bit nervous.

Then it dawned on me that I had been staring at him like a creep for the past minute. I cleared my throat, looking away from him.

"Yes, yes. Of course." I cleared my throat again, putting my hands in my pockets. "Right, your dog. Yes."

"So, do you come here with your dog very often? Is there some place she likes to go?" I asked, looking down at the grass as if it was the most fascinating thing I had ever seen in my life.

"Yes, there is actually. You know Piko? The popcorn vendor around the corner? We go there on all our walks. Piko keeps some plain popcorn for Lucy, Lucy likes popcorn a lot. Today...I just forgot about the popcorn. She must have been hungry." He said, looking quite disappointed in himself.

"Well, there's no time to feel bad. Let's go and check." I said.

Piko's stall was really, literally just around the corner. I wondered why this guy hadn't thought about checking there before. Maybe he had and in the panic, he just didn't see it. Panic does that to people, it makes them blind.

I tried my best not to look at the man again though. He looked too good. Too good to be walking around in those dang saggy clothes like he didn't know how pretty he was. I could have told him but that would mean telling him that I liked how he looked, and that had never gone well for me in the past.

We walked to Piko's. Piko was a pasty-coloured, all-round nice guy with a genuine smile. He was the kind of guy who handed out free ice cream to hungry kids.

"Hey, Luke. Hey, Tris. Nice to see y'all again. I had no idea that you both knew each other." He said, glancing curiously from me to Luke.

Since I was a sucker for popcorn, I spent quite a lot of time here. That's why Piko knew me.

"No, no, we just met." I said, feeling a sudden urge to clear my throat. I tried my best to hold it off. I didn't want Piko to think I had a sore throat just in case he was planning to give me free ice cream.

"Have you seen Lucy?" Luke asked, his eyes still wandering around the place, still searching for her.

"Yes, actually. I was wondering how to tell ya because you see, I don't have your number. Here she is." Piko said. "Came wandering around a while ago."

Luke and Tristan both looked down to see that Lucy's leash was tied to the corner of the stall on a pole. She was sitting on the ground, gobbling down some popcorn, looking like the epitome of aristocracy.

Luke let out a sigh of relief and walked up to Lucy. He bent down on his knees and petted her. Smoothing over her fur, he said "I'm glad that you're okay. Don't you ever do that to me, Luce."

Lucy licked his cheek as if she was saying yes. Luke smiled, untying her leash from the side of the stall and taking it in his hand.

"Thank you, Pinko and thank you - er - I never caught your name." He said, as his eyes wandered to me.

"Tristan. Tristan Williams." I said, wondering whether I should shake his hand. But out of habit my hand just outstretched itself, ah damn involuntary actions.You know that time when you help someone find their dog and wonder whether to high five them, hug them, kiss them or take them to bed. This was one of those times.

Thank god that he didn't keep me hanging but I am sure that him touching me wasn't such a good thing either. His touch made me realize that not only was he aesthetically hot, his freaking body was also hot, a comforting warmth lingering over my hand long after he let go of it.

I tried not to blush again.

"I'm Luke Taylor. Again, Tristan, thank you very much."

He spoke my name. He spoke my name. He spoke my name.

Those two syllables had left his lips a second ago and somehow they still managed to echo in my head. What the hell was wrong with me? Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't dated anyone in a while. Yes, that was it.

Why else would I be so affected by everything a strange but unbelievably cute boy said to me at the park? I mentally facepalmed myself and forced myself to mumble "My pleasure."

Luke smiled again.

I wanted to punch him.

I looked down at my feet instead and found Lucy standing next to me. I petted her, out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that Luke was watching us.

I almost blushed again.

Maybe I just had a little too much haemoglobin at the moment and my blood cells were filled with too much oxygen, transporting the heck out of it, all over my face. I know that's not how it works but leave me alone, I am literature major, I don't care enough to know that.

"Well, I want to properly thank you. How about we go out for a cup of coffee?" Luke asked.

"Yep. Yepo. Yes. Alright. Alrighty. Sure." I said, then cleared my throat, horrified. Luke was certainly not expecting a long, never-ending string of affirmation when he asked that question, it's just that my mouth spoke before I could tell it to.

"Alright, then." Luke said, taking Lucy's leash and walking away. I followed Luke, stuffing my hands in my pockets and stationing my eyes at the back of Luke's head, wishing that Luke wasn't real.