It was a wonderfully clear day that was still cool in temperature. The winter had been long, wet and cold in this small Midwestern city of 80,000 souls. The late March breeze still hinted of the winter winds that had torn at the students of the small university as they moved from building to building each day. The sunshine hinted at the warm days to come before graduation and the ending of the spring semester.
It was a day that would stand out in the minds of both of our main players for years to come but for different reasons.
Mark Adams was ready for the spring. He was a senior in the business administration college and ready to graduate. He was 23 years old, having stayed out of school for a year to earn money for tuition and was a serious student who was intent on getting his diploma in four years rather than the usual five or six years that the average student takes to complete an undergraduate degree.
He also worked full time at a clothing store, one that was positioned in the market for the young crowd. He had started in the retail store but the university was located in the same town as the clothing store's headquarters for the three hundred store chain. He had moved from the retail end to the distribution end and had even spent time helping with photo shoots for the different lines of clothing and knew how to make the signature tee shirts that sold well. He was proud that a couple of his ideas had become good selling tee shirts that were apparently timeless and were perennially available on line.
He was in line to be promoted to assistant manager of the local store with hints of quick promotion by his superiors once he had that minimum degree under his belt. He was already planning on working towards his MBA as the corporation was big enough to build a career in and yet small enough to not get lost in the crowd. That is, if you were a goal driven individual.
Mark didn't have much time to mix with other students outside of class, so he couldn't actually remember when he attended even a sporting event at the university, though the university had very good teams. Maybe his last attended event was the last football game in his junior year. He had played wide receiver for his first three years until he received an eye injury that made it harder to concentrate on the ball in flight so he had reluctantly left the team and concentrated more on his studies. He also didn't have time to attend any other extracurricular function.
He was wearing one of his signature tee shirts and a pair of board shorts along with cross trainers and shivering in the breeze when he rounded a corner of the business administration building while en route to his next class, a required history class, when he contacted the person who would change his life.
The unfortunate recipient of his mass was a cute coed wearing sweats and a hoodie with the hood up. She was carrying a huge bag full of books instead of the usual computer or tablet that had the required textbooks downloaded. The full backpack made her a little bent over from the weight and when colliding with a 180 pound former wide receiver made her overbalanced and easy to put on the ground.
Both would remember Mark's first comment to the marketing major. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." The coed was sitting on her nicely formed rear and her backpack had opened spilling some of her books onto the ground near her. What was more disturbing than her sore backside was the fact that some of her loose papers were now floating around in the breeze. Her latest paper due in the next class was in the mix of white fluttering sheets in the wind.
"Oh no, not my paper. Please, can you help me get them back?" was Stacey's first comment to Mark.
He nodded as he sprang to the task of chasing the errant pieces of paper. His athleticism was evident as he leaped and dove for paper. He tried to not crumple the pages but occasionally a corner got wadded a little as he then moved to the next piece of paper. Soon the two had all the papers recovered and they moved together inside so that Stacey could sort them all out.
Without speaking they sorted and got Stacey's backpack back into shape so she could continue to class. By the time they were finished they both realized that they were late for their next respective class so they retired to the common area and Mark bought a coffee for himself and a latte for Stacey.
Mark put out his hand after brushing his brown hair out of his eyes. Stacey could see that he had intense blue eyes and wondered if they were natural or colored contacts. She didn't seek an answer to her unspoken question. "Hi, I'm Mark. I am so sorry for meeting you like this."
Stacey smiled back. "Hi, my name is Stacey. It was a unique way of meeting and my butt may be sore for a few days but it isn't all bad." Stacey leaned back and studied Mark for a moment. "I think we may have had a few classes together this year. You sit towards the back of the room unless required to sit somewhere else, don't you?"
Mark nodded. "I get to class early as much as possible and can study for a bit before class starts if I can grab a seat near the door. I can't study as well when sitting at the front if alphabetic seating is required by the instructor."
Stacey also looked a little familiar. She was definitely in the cute next door neighbor category. She wasn't a slim model shape but more of the cheerleader toned and fit body type. With her sweats and hoodie he couldn't quite determine how large her breasts were but he had never been a breast man. It was the girl he was interested in, not her looks per se. Stacey had a beautiful smile, something he had always been attracted to. He took a wide and honest smile as an indicator of how the person felt about life. If a girl smiled easily and a lot then she usually found life exciting and wonderful. A perennial frown usually meant a sour outlook on life and not someone he would choose to be around a lot.