At first sight, I knew she was out of my league. And I don’t mean like a few miles out, she was at least a planet away.  She was beautiful. And not just the generic type of beauty. She had a certain classic and natural quality about her beauty. She was the kind of woman that made you wish you could sculpt just so you could create something like her. God probably made her on a Monday morning after a good weekend’s rest. I can almost imagine him going, ‘Hey Gabriel, fetch me some clay, the finest we have. This morning, we create art!’

Me on the other hand….let’s just say God was starting to nod off when he put me together. And like being ugly wasn’t bad enough, I was broke too. Or rather, penniless. The only date I could afford was a pirated DVD at mine because I had to sell my laptop last month to pay my rent. Streaming wasn’t even an option. She was fiddling with what looked like a car key from this distance and a McLaren was parked not too far away. If that was….she crossed over to the other side of the road and unlocked the car remotely. No way, no fucking way! If it was going to take this girl running me over for me to talk to her, then she was about to do just that. That was what Will Smith did for Eva Mendes in Hitch right? And it worked.

I planned and plotted my dive making several imaginary runs in my head. It was only after she closed the door that I realized there was every possibility she would turn around and drive down the other direction. I was fast, but Me vs. a McLaren was an exercise in futility on my part. She turned on the engine and I readied my mind for the worst even though I wasn’t exactly sure what that was under the circumstance.

Nothing happened. By the time I got within earshot she was still parked, and I realized she was on the phone.

‘Bobby, I swear I will never do it again. I will be good, I promise. I know I am nothing without you.’

She took off her sunglasses to wipe the tears from her face and all of a sudden I was trapped in a predicament. What exactly was I supposed to do about her blackened right eye? It didn’t seem right to walk past a person in such distress but what were my options. Whoever Bobby was, he was a master manipulator and this lady was clearly under his thumb. I could offer her my help in the way of advice, but it was up to her to take it or leave it.

I tapped on the slightly cracked window.

‘You don’t have to take that. You can…’

She didn’t wait for the rest of my speech. I watched the window go up before I could get out my second sentence in its entirety. And then just in case I didn’t get the message, she showed me the palm of her hand in that ‘I don’t need your advice’ gesture. What choice did I have but to carry on walking? Sometimes this is the nature of the world. Not everyone can be saved, or at least be saved at the time we are trying to rescue them. And what one man would treats as gold, another tramples on like dust. For all her beauty, happiness for her was at best…a mirage. It brought much sadness to my day.

P.S Based on true events

by William Ifeanyi Moore