“I Didn't Ask You to Save My Life. But I'm Damn Glad You Did.”

ENTWINED MAGAZINE Every Love Has a Story. CHANCE ENCOUNTER Some meetings are accidental. The love stories that follow are unforgettable. From a Near-Fatal Accident to an Unlikely Love Some women meet over coffee. Others meet at parties, at work, or through mutual friends. And then there are the women whose first meeting involves screaming brakes, shattered glass, and somebody risking her own life to save a complete stranger. At 35, Victoria Chen was the polished CEO of a successful investment company, accustomed to expensive restaurants, immaculate designer pantsuits, carefully scheduled appointments, and a life in which almost everything happened according to plan. At 25, Raven Blackwood was a tattooed, pink-streaked goth with a spectacular collection of platform boots, an impressive vocabulary of obscenities, and an intense distrust of wealthy people who thought money could solve everything. They had absolutely nothing in common. Until a rainy Tuesday afternoon changed both their lives. Today, ten months later, the two women walk through the city arm in arm, Victoria looking every inch the successful executive and Raven looking as though she has just escaped from the backstage area of a particularly outrageous rock concert. We asked them to tell us how it happened. MAGAZINE: How did you two meet? Raven: She saved my fucking life. Victoria: (Laughing.) Raven! Raven: What? That's what happened. You want me to tell them you asked me for directions? Victoria: You could perhaps tell the story without swearing in the first five seconds. Raven: (Grinning.) Sweetheart, you knew what you were getting when you took me home. MAGAZINE: We understand there was a serious accident? Victoria: Very serious. I'd just left a meeting downtown, and my driver was waiting on the opposite side of the street. It had been raining all afternoon, and traffic was dreadful. I was standing near a pedestrian crossing when I noticed a young woman trying to help an elderly gentleman whose shopping bag had torn open. Raven: He'd dropped his groceries everywhere. Poor old bastard was trying to pick up his oranges while people walked around him like he was invisible. Victoria: Raven stepped into the road to retrieve one of his bags just as a delivery truck came around the corner. The driver apparently lost control on the wet pavement. MAGAZINE: What happened next? Victoria: I heard the tires, looked up, and realized the truck wasn't going to stop. Raven had her back to it. She couldn't see what was happening. I don't remember deciding to move. I simply ran toward her, grabbed her jacket, and threw us both toward the sidewalk. The truck struck the concrete planter immediately behind us. Raven: The damn thing exploded. Dirt, broken concrete, pieces of metal everywhere. One second I was picking up somebody's groceries, the next this gorgeous woman in a business suit had practically tackled me onto the pavement. Victoria: We both hit the ground rather hard. Raven: Yeah, and she took the worst of it. Landed between me and a bloody great chunk of concrete. MAGAZINE: Were you injured? Victoria: I fractured my wrist and suffered a concussion. Raven had several cuts and bruises, but fortunately nothing serious. Raven: And I was convinced she was dying. There was blood on her forehead, she wasn't answering me properly, and I was kneeling there screaming at her to open her damn eyes. Victoria: (Quietly.) I remember her holding my hand. Raven: I wasn't letting go. MAGAZINE: What happened at the hospital? Raven: I stayed. Obviously. Victoria: Not so obviously. We were complete strangers. Raven: A complete stranger had just saved my life. What was I supposed to do, send a thank-you card and piss off? Victoria: (Smiling.) She stayed beside my bed until almost three in the morning. Raven: Her assistant showed up, then some lawyer, then a couple of people who looked like they'd been born wearing expensive suits. Everybody kept calling her Ms. Chen and fussing about her appointments. I told them all to get the hell out and let her sleep. Victoria: Including my chief financial officer. Raven: Especially him. Miserable-looking prick. MAGAZINE: And Victoria, what did you think of Raven? Victoria: Initially? That she was extraordinarily loud, rather intimidating, and in desperate need of a lesson in diplomatic communication. Raven: (Laughing.) She thought I was a nightmare. Victoria: I also thought she was remarkably brave. When she believed I was seriously hurt, she wouldn't leave my side. She spoke gently to the nurses, thanked every person who helped me, and spent an hour comforting the elderly gentleman who'd witnessed the accident. Raven: Oh, don't make me sound like a bloody angel. Victoria: You see? Every time somebody says something nice about her, she tries to ruin it. MAGAZINE: When did gratitude become something more? Victoria: Not immediately. Raven visited me during my recovery, initially because she said she felt responsible for my injuries. Raven: I did feel responsible! Victoria: And I kept telling her I was perfectly capable of recovering without assistance. Raven: Meanwhile, she couldn't open a jar, button her blouse properly, or cut her own dinner with that broken wrist. Victoria: So Raven started coming over in the evenings. She brought groceries, made some surprisingly good meals, and complained about practically everything in my apartment. Raven: It was like living inside a bloody furniture catalog. White carpets, white sofas, white walls. I was afraid to sit down in case my eyeliner contaminated something. Victoria: She called my living room a luxury waiting room. Raven: It was! Victoria: And somehow, within three weeks, there were black cushions on my sofa, a little collection of goth ornaments on my bookshelves, and a pair of enormous platform boots standing beside my front door. MAGAZINE: That sounds rather domestic. Raven: Don't look at me. She was the one who kept asking me to stay for dinner. Victoria: Because I liked having her around. Raven: (Suddenly quieter.) Yeah. And I liked being wanted somewhere. MAGAZINE: Who realized they were falling in love first? Victoria: I did, although it took me some time to admit it. Raven: Bollocks. I knew before you did. Victoria: You certainly didn't behave as though you knew. Raven: I was scared, wasn't I? MAGAZINE: Of Victoria? Raven: Of what she represented. Look at her. She's beautiful, successful, sophisticated, rich. She walks into a room and everybody straightens their bloody ties. And then there's me. I've got tattoos, half my wardrobe looks like it came out of a vampire's closet, and I swear when I'm nervous, happy, angry, or just breathing. I figured she'd eventually get bored of her little charity project and go back to dating women who know which fork to use. Victoria: (Taking Raven's hand.) She actually said that to me one evening. That she wasn't interested in becoming my charity project. MAGAZINE: What did you say? Victoria: I told her that if I wanted a charity project, I'd donate to a hospital. What I wanted was to kiss her. Raven: (Laughing.) And I said, "Well, what the fuck are you waiting for?" Victoria: So I kissed her. Raven: Best decision the woman ever made. MAGAZINE: Your appearance couldn't be more different. Does that ever cause problems? Raven: Only when she tries to borrow my clothes. Victoria: I have never attempted to borrow your clothes! Raven: You wore my black T-shirt to bed last week. Victoria: That hardly counts. Raven: It had a skull on it, darling. You're practically a goth now. MAGAZINE: And Raven, do you ever wear Victoria's elegant clothes? Raven: (Looking horrified.) Me? In one of those thousand-dollar corporate suits? I'd look like a delinquent pretending to be a bank manager. Victoria: She looked magnificent in the black evening dress I bought her for a charity gala. Raven: Yeah, well, it was black, wasn't it? I have standards. Victoria: She also wore her enormous platform boots underneath. Raven: Damn right. I'm not breaking my ankles in those little pencil-thin heels of hers. Victoria: (Laughing.) Hers have even higher heels than mine. MAGAZINE: How do people react when they see you together? Victoria: Some stare. Others smile. Occasionally somebody assumes Raven is my daughter, which she finds particularly irritating. Raven: Oh, that one really pisses me off. Victoria: And then she kisses me rather dramatically just to make certain there is no further misunderstanding. Raven: Works every bloody time. MAGAZINE: Does it bother you? Victoria: Not especially. I spent years worrying about what people thought of me. Being with Raven has taught me that happiness is more important than appearances. Raven: And she's taught me that not everybody wearing an expensive suit is an arrogant asshole. Victoria: How romantic, darling. Raven: You're welcome. MAGAZINE: One final question. If you could go back to that rainy afternoon, knowing everything that would happen afterward, would you change anything? Victoria: I'd try to avoid breaking my wrist. Raven: (Laughing.) Fair enough. Victoria: But I'd still run toward her. Without hesitation. MAGAZINE: Raven? Raven: I'd probably still stop to help the old gentleman. That's just who I am. But if I knew Victoria was standing across the street, I'd make damn sure I looked both ways before crossing. Victoria: That would certainly be appreciated. Raven: (Turning toward her.) And then I'd walk straight up to this beautiful woman in her ridiculously expensive suit and ask her out for coffee. Victoria: Would you really? Raven: Absolutely. Might even manage it without swearing. Victoria: (Laughing.) Now that I find impossible to believe. Raven: Yeah, well, don't push your luck, sweetheart. As our interview concludes, Victoria reaches for Raven's hand, and the two women leave together, one in an immaculate corporate pantsuit and elegant heels, the other in black leather, fishnets, and towering platform boots. People turn to look as they pass, but neither woman seems to notice. Ten months earlier, a stranger ran into traffic to save a young woman's life. Neither could have imagined that, in doing so, she would change her own forever. Because sometimes a chance encounter doesn't simply change your life. It saves it.