"Penny!"
David broke into a jog, weaving his way past a man in a three-piece suit and a grey-haired couple walking their dog. He barely sidestepped a pair of doormen standing beneath an apartment building awning in their matching gold-tasseled uniforms. He could feel their eyes on his back as he brushed past. He must have cut quite a figure, he supposed, running down Park Avenue in a tux.
He'd just made his escape from this evening's black-tie gala at the Whitney Museum. Leo had raised his eyebrows and looked down at his watch when David told him he was heading out. "So early?" his boss had said. "It's barely nine o'clock."
David hadn't been in the mood to socialize tonight. He'd gone to the party stag - hadn't bothered with a date. And he was glad now that he hadn't. A date probably wouldn't have taken too kindly to being ditched just now, when he'd strolled around the corner of 75th and Park, and caught sight of that flash of long blonde hair.
He spotted her again now. She had her back toward him, making her way downtown. He was just about to shout after her again, when she stopped. She stood at the edge of the curb and raised her arm. David picked up the pace from a jog to an all-out run as he saw a taxi pull over in front of her.
"Hey! Penny! Wait up!"
She still didn't turn around. She had her hand on the car door when he reached out and caught her on the shoulder. "Penny!"
She turned and looked back at him with a pair of startled eyes.
Unfamiliar eyes.
Not Penny. Not anyone he knew.
He dropped his arm in disappointment. The woman pulled a pair of earphones from her ears and shot him a blank look. "Do I know you?"
"Sorry," he panted. "Sorry, I didn't... I thought you were someone else."
He raked his fingers through the hair at the crown of his head, and her wary expression softened into a a shy smile. She jammed her headphones into her purse and tossed her hair behind one shoulder, exposing a long, graceful neck. He smiled back as she tilted her head at the waiting taxi. "No harm done," she said. "Would you like to split a cab?"
His eyes flicked down for a moment as he strained to catch his breath. Early 30s, from the looks of her. No wedding ring. He wondered if they'd ever met before. She had on a little black dress that hugged her hips and hit at the top of her knees. A pair of pedicured toes peeked out from the tips of her high-heeled patent leather pumps. A string of pearls encircled her neck, just above the collar bone. In her hand, she held a simple metallic-sliver clutch. It looked expensive.
Perfect. Split a cab, indeed. David knew an invitation when he heard one. He couldn't think of a single reason to decline. Except for the hair, of course. Blond hair. Long, straight blonde hair that he'd mistaken from behind for someone else.
He shook his head. "No, thanks," he said. "I'll catch the next one."
"Are you sure? I don't mind at all."
"I'm headed the other direction," he lied, gesturing uptown. He shrugged regretfully and pulled the car door open for her to step inside. "Sorry again. You have a good night."
David watched the cab pull away and join the stream of traffic zipping by in both directions. He put his hands on his hips and stood still, waiting for his breathing to slow and his heart rate to return to normal.
Another cab pulled up in front of him. The driver looked up at him questioningly, but David waved him on. "No thanks," he called when the man rolled down his window. "Just waiting, thanks."
Waiting for what, exactly? He stepped away from the curb and started walking downtown again. What the hell was he even thinking? Of course it wasn't Penny. Penny, on the Upper East Side? Not exactly her neighborhood. No, if he wanted to bump into Penny, he knew where he should go. Hang around outside the Smith Street subway stop in Brooklyn, among the 22-year-old hipsters with their skinny jeans and ugly high-top Converse sneakers. He'd be bound to run into her eventually.
Out of the question, of course. He needed to get a grip. What was he doing, chasing after random blondes on the street? When had he ever chased? That was rule number one. Never chase a woman. How many times had he explained that one to Leo?
"But this girl's different, David," Leo had said to him once. "She's got a good head on her shoulders. She's a sweet girl."
He'd met his boss for drinks after work on a Thursday night, and Leo couldn't shut up about the girl he'd met that weekend. A ballet dancer, working a day-job as a receptionist to pay the bills. Leo had called her up on Monday to ask her out to dinner, and four days later, he still hadn't heard back. "So what's my next move?" he'd asked David. "What's the rule for calling her again?"
"The rule is, don't."
"But I want to see her!"
"It's not worth it, Leo. Trust me. If she wanted to go out with you, she'd have called you back by now."
"Maybe she didn't get the message."
"Don't chase," David had commanded. "Never chase."
"You didn't see this girl," Leo protested. "Beautiful. Legs like you wouldn't believe. And she thought I was funny."
"I think you're funny too, Leo."
"Thanks, but you're not really my type." Leo laughed. "I'm telling you, Dave. I've got a feeling about this one. I can't explain it. I just know."
Leo took out his phone and started thumbing through his contacts.
"How old was she?" David asked.
"I don't know. Twenty-three? Maybe 24?" Leo looked up at him. "Why?"
"Do what you're going to do," David shrugged. "You know my rule."
"I'm telling you, Dave-"
"Yeah, I heard you. You have a feeling."
"I do!"
David shrugged again and sipped his scotch.
"So you're telling me you wouldn't call? Even if you were up all night thinking about her afterward. You wouldn't call her, just because she's under 26?"
"I don't know. I might call her," David said. "But I definitely wouldn't call her twice. Never chase. No exceptions."
"Even if she was perfect, though?"
"No such thing as perfect," David answered. "Listen to me now. We've been over this before. Women are like taxis. Remember?"
Leo groaned. "Not this again."
"You know I'm right."
"Didn't you steal that line from Sex and the City?"
"Doesn't make it less true."
"Right, right." Leo rolled his eyes. "I got it. Women are like taxis. If one doesn't stop, another will come rolling down the block any second."
"Don't call her, Leo. Rules are rules for a reason."
Leo had waved him quiet and brought the phone to his ear. "It's ringing."
David came to a stop now. The "Don't Walk" sign had lit up on 72nd Street just as he was about to step off of the curb. He took a step backward and looked to his left as a row of empty yellow cabs passed through the intersection on their way across town.
Leo had crowed about that conversation for years afterward, of course. "That's the thing about rules, Dave. There's always an exception."
His boss had even mentioned it at the wedding when he lifted his glass to toast his bride. "I always knew she was the one," Leo had said to the reception hall full of well-wishers. "Right from the moment we met. There may have been certain people-" He'd broken off and grinned in David's direction. "-certain friends who shall remain nameless, who told me not to chase after her. But I knew. I always knew. And look what happened."
Yeah, look what happened, David thought. Look where Leo was now. Right back where he'd started. Alone on a Friday night at a black-tie fundraiser, with a failed marriage under his belt and an ex-wife on the permanent payroll. That's what came from breaking rules. That's what came from chasing.
David lifted his arm. A taxi pulled up promptly to the curb. He ducked inside and gave the cabbie his home address.
Penny knew where to find him if she wanted him. She'd given him her answer, loud and clear. He'd asked to buy her coffee, and she'd turned and run away. He wouldn't ask her twice. He didn't chase.
Not even if he'd been up all night thinking about her afterward.
Not even if he was up all night, every night for the rest of his life.