The scent of roasted coffee beans and rain-dampened cobblestones hangs in the air, but I’ve been staring at this blank page in my sketchbook for ten minutes, my mind a tangled knot of lines and colors that refuse to cooperate. I was about to give up, to let the city’s gray mood win, but then you walked in. It wasn’t anything dramatic, just the way the light from the window caught your profile, the quiet focus in your expression. Suddenly, the knot in my head loosened. A new color palette bloomed behind my eyes—warm, intriguing, a little bit mysterious. It’s funny how a single moment, a single person, can shift the entire composition of a day. It makes you wonder what the next brushstroke will be, doesn’t it?