Mark admired the dappled sunlight on the leaves above him as he walked along the hillside. The complex play of light and shadow through the narrow leaves seemed to create the impression of dozens of leaves from only two or three, and that effect was magnified uncountably by the canopy above the narrow cliffside path he walked along. He very occasionally checked his footing, reaching to the short, rock-and-tree outcropping to his right to steady himself lest he tumble down the tall, steep cliff over the bay to his left. He checked the path ahead too, in case he had to pass someone. On this narrow path, that could be dangerous for both parties. That said, meeting someone up here was rare these days, he rarely saw others on the path at all let alone on this short stretch of cliffside. He saw no-one and lost himself in thoughts of the latest super battle which had annihilated the bridge beside his city, marvelling at how simultaneously no one had been killed but tens of thousands of people could no longer get to work. He let his mind wander aimlessly, mind saturated with the play of the light on the leaves in the pleasant weather. He wondered later if he should have been paying more attention. Later still, he was glad he wasn't.
He felt someone bump into his right shoulder, and tried to step to the left to let them pass. He had a split second of weightlessness before he started to topple from the cliffside. He threw out his arms to catch whatever he could on the path, and managed to barely get hold of a rock with both hands. He looked up to at once scream for help and in frustration at the person who had knocked him over, and found the sounds die in his throat as he looked into the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. An angel in a blue summer dress and black glasses.
Where did she come from
, he wondered. The path had seemed empty a few moments before.
After a few moments he realised she was talking to him. Or rather, was repeating "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", over and over, while pulling at his hands. Mark forced himself to remember he could fall to his death at any moment, and paid attention to the burning in his arms and hands as he clung on for dear life. He focused on the task of survival.
"Hi, yes, listen, I seem to have fallen."
"Oh my god I'm so sorry, here let me help" the physical incarnation of beauty replied, extending her hand to grab his wrist.
Mark shook himself again. Focus. He looked at the woman, estimated she was about 5'5" and maybe 120 lbs. Not small, but maybe not so much help against his tall, if somewhat gangly, frame. They would need to work together, and carefully. He managed to get a foot into a rock below to stabilise himself, but it was too far down to push up from. The woman grabbed his arm, and started to pull. Mark pushed with his other arm, and scrambled with his legs, and found himself back on the path much more easily than he had expected. He lay on his back, staring at the sun through the trees, thankful to be alive.
His view was intruded upon by a further radiance; the young woman checking to see if he was hurt. He found himself staring for a moment, before scrambling to his feet.
"Hi, I'm Mark, it was good to bump into you", he said with a half smile.
The woman flashed him a brilliant smile back, quickly replaced with a concerned look. "Are you hurt? I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention. I could have killed you!"
She reached out to him as if to make sure that he was in fact still alive, and Mark noticed her hands were shaking. He realised his were too; before he had become totally enraptured with a woman he didn't know beyond a moment of mildly violent physical contact, he had been in danger of dying a fairly unpleasant and terrifying death.
"Nah I'm fine". Mark congratulated himself on his smoothness in the face of death, certain that the nightmares would fade within several months, a couple of years at the outside. "Don't worry about it. I should have been paying more attention to the path. What's your name?"
"Sorry, I'm Kate."
"Please, stop apologizing. I'm fine, really. I am going to go back down the cliff though. The long way. You going this way too?"
Kate nodded, and Mark turned and began walking. Within a minute the path had widened more than enough so that he could wait for Kate, a few steps behind him, and walk alongside her. Kate's face still wore a guilty frown, and she opened her mouth to speak, before catching herself and falling silent. Mark caught her eye and grinned. "Thank you for not apologizing again. Really, no harm done. At least none that say, dinner tonight won't fix?"
Kate recoiled in surprise, but quickly returned his grin. "Yeah that would be nice. What did you have in mind?"
"Something easy, there's a great Mexican place on the south end of town, right by the college campus, Los Taquitos, you know it?"
"I love that place! It's already getting kinda late, do you wanna go there now?"
Mark was surprised by how eager she seemed, but was more than happy to agree. "Sure, I need to swing by my place to change into some jeans. Cover up the scratches. But I can meet you there in an hour?"
"Sor- ah- yeah. I'll see you in an hour Mark".
Mark made the short trek back to his car with his mind full of Kate's smile, her sparkling eyes, the way her dark hair perfectly framed her face. He made it home, quickly changed and somehow made it to the Mexican place on time despite the distraction.
Kate was already sitting at a low table outside, basking in the last rays of the summer sun next to the verdant college campus, still in her blue summer dress. As he sat someone came to take their order, and quickly left the two of them alone.
"So look," Kate began, "I know you said not to and so just one last time, I wanted to apologize for nearly killing you. I should have been more careful."
"Really, it's fine, I should have been more careful too. I didn't even see you on the path, I'm at least as much to blame. Let's forget about it alright?"
Kate lowered her eyes and looked a little embarrassed, but nodded.
"OK great, so let's start over Kate. I'm Mark, it's great to meet you."
Kate beamed back at him. "Why hello Mark, I'm Kate, it's great to meet you to."
Mark couldn't help but grin at the forced formality. "What brought you up to the hillside today? Mondays are my day off so it's usually quiet, and I don't normally see anyone else up there these days. Most people seem to want to spend the day off watching the skies to see if they can spot supers off to save the day, or whatever else they do."
"Yeah right? It seems like no one else wants to enjoy the world around them any more. I'm off on Mondays too, my job has me cooped up inside all day so I can't wait to get out and see some life."
"I'm indoors all day too, I work in a bank and you know, it's not bad, but you can only look at a desk and a computer for so long before you go a little crazy. One day I swear I'm going to go up to the cliffside and start screaming. But once I'm up there, I feel so calm, it's like an oasis."
"Yes that's the perfect description! It's a little calm oasis that no one goes to. No one but us."
Mark found himself staring at Kate as she spoke, and as she finished, he felt she was staring back. He felt he could get lost in her eyes, like he was falling forward and if he stared a little longer he would pitch over the edge and never come ba-
"Bunch a tacos! You guys ordered a bunch a tacos yeah?" Mark and Kate tore their gazes from one another and stared drunkenly at the guy with their order. They nodded absently, and he placed two trays of tacos on the table before ambling off to loudly greet another set of customers.
"Yeah tacos great". Mark said. "I think nearly dying must give you an appetite cause I'm gonna warn you, I'm eating a lot of goddamn tacos tonight."
"Maybe nearly committing murder makes you hungry too cause if you don't eat quickly I'm stealing yours."
"Better get started thenmnmmm" Mark said as he stuffed a taco into his mouth.
They fell into a happy silence as they ate for a few minutes.
"So what do you do Kate?" Mark asked.
"I work for the government." Kate replied. No follow-up, no embellishment. Mark was instantly incredibly curious.
"Sooo just 'work for the government'? What do you do? Do you hunt bad guys? Do you file paperwork? Do you save school buses from burning children and devastate local bridges?"
Kate let out a low laugh, and Mark was even further enchanted. "No, I just can't talk about it. I sign all these forms. I promise it's very boring."
"Well all right, maybe you can tell me some other time."
They had finished their food, but Mark was eager not to let the night end any time soon. He wanted more time with Kate, in any form. "You want to go for a walk through the college campus? It's nice in the evenings, all the students are already either at a bar or inside glued to a computer, so it's probably pretty quiet."
"Hmm I dunno. You seem pretty nice, but you might be an axe murderer. Or a knife murderer. Or even a hand murderer. How could I tell?" With this she leaned forward across the narrow table, staring directly into his eyes. "Are you any kind of object murderer Mark? I really hope you aren't, I think you're pretty nice and I'd really hate to be wrong about that."
Mark found himself staring back, bewitched by the woman in front of him. He clasped her hands in his, a move that felt so natural, so right, and said "I promise I haven't murdered any axes, knives, or hands."
Kate scrunched her face in mock thought. "That'll have to do," she said, "let's go!"
They quickly left more than enough to cover the check on the table and began to wander through the campus, close enough to be almost touching. Mark could feel the warmth from her hand, an inch from his.
"So Mark, did you study here?"