Flux, California

Time had decided to take the day off and Stella was left to overheat in her small mountain cottage, doing nothing. Everything Stella wanted to happen was not going to happen today, so why bother doing anything at all? She was ready to move to Beirut or Cuenca, or to finally find her dream home in which to raise a family. She still wanted to have secret rendezvous with spies and fly a shuttle mission to Mars and run a dive bar in New York. She was ready for it all. But Time wasn't. Time couldn't move fast enough. All day, Stella was silent and she tried not to think of the future.

"I just got to this town and I just started this job," she reminded herself, "so just be patient."

All the time she had given to Ren was wasted. She felt that way, anyhow. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. So did Stella, but the problem was that they weren't eating the same cake. Stella was a great baker, unlike Ren, and it was beginning to affect their relationship. If Ren had ever wondered why Stella might have been holding back a little, it would have been due to his lack of baking skills--that and, perhaps, Stella's knack for abusing metaphors like baking. Either way, Stella detested building relationships in vain. She felt some resentment toward Ren for having led her to believe that he wanted to get married at all.

 * * *

During this state of change, a dark stranger from a foreign land entered Stella's life and eventually came to visit her in her new town. He knew she had a life already, but he was so magnetically drawn to her--and she to him--that being together, even for a moment, even in a crowded public space, could shut out the entire world around them and all its problems. This was something he had been searching for and he found it in Stella. Stella didn't know what to do with this stranger. At first, she thought he would just be an exciting blip on her emotional timeline. But soon, she began to feel that there was something more going on.  It was at this point that she felt she had to let him into her life, come what may.