Handsome stranger.

"Oookaay. We're now at the Statue Of Liberty." A tour guide with a receding hairline announced.

La Liberté éclairant le Monde.

This was the second time Riona joined in on this tour. Same seat,same corner at the back near the window just different people. It's like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.

"What choice do I have? I've been cursed by the old white witch to go through this day over and over again and again till I learn my lesson." She muttered to herself.

The tour boat came to a stop and immediately, East Asian tourists with beanies on their heads clicked their cameras while awing at each other.

"How cliché."

"It's a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch with her right hand and in her left hand, as you can see, carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI " The date of the US Declaration of Independence."

The guide went on and on telling them about Frederic Auguste and Gustave Eiffel and when the Statue was dedicated, October 28,1886.

Riona came to this city for a reason. To start a new life, fulfill her dreams and her family's wishes, and escape the man who haunted her every night while asleep.

She couldn't say that the journey to where she was now, was easy. All she could say and be at peace with is, she lost what she was meant to lose and the Universe had something incredibly good in store for her. Riona wouldn't agree with this if it were couple of years ago when she went through a series of anxiety attacks... win some, lose some, right?

" Watch where you're going lady." A scruffy man with stress lines on his face on his phone yelled at her.

"What the hell! This is a free street ,free city! He should be the one to watch where he's going!" Riona protested in her mind.

"Ugh!" The nice sunny weather now seemed to dull.

"Don't mind him. He's probably stressed out or something. I'm Enzo."

He stretched out his arm and she, of course, did what everyone else does and shook his calloused hand.

"Riona." Enzo was no man to be overlooked. He was handsome in that mysterious way that could drive any woman insane. But Riona was not just any woman. She wouldn't easily fall for his strong cheekbones, chiseled features, pronounced black eyebrows, a slightly crooked nose, shoulder-length hair, all underscored his divinely good looks. She suppressed the cold shiver that ran down her spine and forced a smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you Fiona."

Hold up. See, whenever people play around with her name, she gets this icky feeling inside her. With her surname, she'd punch them wherever her little fist would land, on their body.

"Excuse me?" Riona's voice was stiff and cold.

I'm one hundred percent sure that I'd really like to punch him in the throat.

"Sorry, sorry...had to know..." He said mid laughter.

"...had to know,which kind if girl you are." Enzo sighed as he took in a deep breath. Passing his hand through his now unruly hair,he bit his lip and said, "I like feisty girls." he winked.

"See you around, Riona."

Just like that,the annoyingly beautiful guy disappeared into the crowd.