Drake Stone didn't really walk around in public alone. He always had someone with him. His manager insisted; whether it was a bodyguard or his manager himself. And as much as the illusionist liked attention, he hated not being able to go out in public alone. The fame was still new to him, his career just beginning fresh, and loosing this freedom was still a problem for him.

The day he was able to give his meat-headed bodyguard the slip, Drake rejoiced. He rejoiced so hard, he managed to round a corner and rejoice his way into hitting someone. Once he was able to regain his surroundings, he realized he had toppled over a girl about four years his junior. That made her sixteen or seventeen. She was pretty with alabaster skin, extremely dark brown hair and the most amazing blue eyes. Her pouty lips were covered in not-yet-dry cherry cola colored lipstick, lipstick that had smeared all over the collar of his white tee shirt in the collision.

She soon recovered enough to join him in standing. Drake watched her collect clothes that had spilled from her bag. Seeing that she had this covered, he reached for the guitar case the girl had dropped. He closed the latch on the neck that had fallen open and held it out to her.

"I'm sorry," he said, still in slight shock, "I was kind of excited."

"It's alright. Oh! I got lipstick on your shirt!"

"Oh, no. It's okay. Don't worry about it."

"No! Hey, you want to see a magic trick?"

He wanted to say 'Babe, I'm the King of Magic Tricks', but what came out of his mouth was, "Uh, sure."

She reached into her bag and brought out this odd contraption that looked like it was made of pewter. He watched skeptically as she slipped it onto her middle finger. She held her pointer finger in front of his face.

"Watch my finger."

She touched the stain on his shirt, then her lips, his shirt, her lips, his shirt, her lips; Drake's eyes never left the woman's finger. Suddenly she reached down and picked up her guitar case.

"I thought you were going to fix the stain," he said looking at the lipstick still on his shirt.

"What stain?" she asked.

"This one," he pointed to his shirt.

"I don't see a stain."

He looked back down and she was right; the stain was gone. When he looked back up, the girl was walking away.

"Hey!"

He ran to catch up to her. He put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"How did you do that?"

"You're the magician, Drake Stone. You figure it out."

She walked away. This time Drake was too stunned to stop her.

And that was how Drake Stone met Jess Knash.