He never believed in chasing rainbows, but then again, colors never suited him.

Dark hair and eyes were more his style. Grey suits, crisp white shirts and somber ties.

He was never quite fast enough to catch the end of the rainbow before it disappeared.

***********

On a grey-rain day, she appeared bringing a handful of dandelion yellow and a swirl of sunburst orange.

Everything inside warned him of her ways; temperamental nature, fiery personality. She brought with her bright days and rainbows that fade too quickly for anyone to grasp.

He turned his eyes away.

Feeling a tap on his rigid shoulder, he looked down at a small hand.

She smiles at him. “May I share your umbrella?”

Something hits him on the inside as he looks at her shivering and smiling. He shoves the umbrella at her and moves away.

It takes him twenty minutes to walk home, and longer to forget her smile.

***********

A week later he sees her in a library. Her rich-brown hair softly framing her face, bottom lip caught between her teeth as she tiptoes, trying to put a book on a shelf.

He has to bite back a smile as she attempts to climb a table.

Before he could help himself, he involuntarily asks, “May I help?”.  This was not part of his order. He just wanted to return a book.

She gasps at the sound of his voice, and nearly falls.

He reaches forward to break her fall, and she tumbles into his arms.

“Thank you,” she says,and he is dazzled at the happiness in her face that echoes all colors of the rainbow.

***********

It is then he feels the energy he can no longer ignore.

They share their first kiss under a rainbow that arcs over the sky. A spray of colors as a  grey cloud disappears.

As his lips meet hers, he’s not sure his rainbow will stay around long enough.

He doesn’t care and pulls her in closer.