Fit is more important than looks :-) If the bike doesn't fit you well, you won't ride it. But yes, I know what you mean about falling in love with a bike! I recommend test riding both of them. Here's some advice for test rides. First, make sure both bikes have tires inflated to the same PSI. A tire which is inflated to lower PSI will have a smoother ride than one inflated to max PSI. You want to compare the two bikes, not tire inflation :-) Also, take a long enough test ride to use ALL THE GEARS! You'll get some idea of how smooth the shifting mechanism is and learn if they are adjusted properly. You also get a feel for how close the gears are. The Escape has a larger rear cassette and the gear spacings are going to be greater. My hybrid has an 11-34 cassette and the gear spacings are too large for my comfort. The 11-28 I have is perfect. I've never ridden an 11-32 cassette so I don't know if the spacing is on the large side or not. The 21-26 and 26-32 on the 11-32 are really large spacing. Test ride them both and pick the one you like. The two bikes have pretty similar specs and you won't go wrong with either one.

11-32 (11-12-14-16-18-21-26-32 teeth)
12-28 12,14,15,18,21,24,28