When she smiled at him as she walked past on that wet Berlin street, Jon Quennell fell instantly, madly in love. Sometimes, however, being 'crazy in love' with someone doesn't end in a beautiful romance. Sometimes people get hurt. And sometimes, people die.

This is a short story (about 10,000 words / 45 minutes read) that was initially inspired when a truly attractive woman smiled at me (a little seductively, I like to think), as she walked past me on a Berlin street. I personally didn't react at that moment, other than to offer a vague smile back – I am happily married after all – but it got me thinking about some potentially-interesting plot scenarios. A three-hour flight back home to Malaga proved to be an opportunity to hack out a premise and a first draft. I'm not one for romantic stories and happy endings, and hence the result was always likely to involve going somewhere quite dark. And it did.

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