Steps

Step 2: Running Into Each Other

It had been a long day at work. An extremely long day. How could so many people fall victim to the same spam email in one day? The subject literally said spam, yet everyone had clicked away without a second thought. They were stupid. All of them. Even some of her fellow IT coworkers had clicked it. And they were trained to avoid that crap like the plague. In the end, it had been her job to fix the mess.

"Work in the IT department they said. It will be easy they said. Yeah right..." She had an awful habit of muttering under her breath, especially when she got aggravated. That particular sentence had earned her a disapproving glance from the man sitting across from her on the train. She offered an apologetic look before she went back to her thoughts.

All she wanted to do was get home. The Dog Cops season finale was coming on tonight, and she was not going to miss it for anything. That last cliffhanger had nearly killed her. It was like they wanted to give you feels. All the feels.

She glanced out the window. It had been raining non-stop for the past few days in Central City, but it had finally let up earlier in the afternoon. Now it was just cloudy. She always enjoyed the way the clouds darkened the city. It made it seem more... mysterious.

A soft chime came from the speaker indicating her stop. She looked down and made sure she had all her things. Ok, good. As the train slowed to a stop, she got up and headed to the doors, offering the man from earlier one last polite smile.

She was out the door and into the street in a matter of minutes. People had always told her that when she walked, she looked like she was on a mission. It was probably true though. She did walk faster than most, probably from years of trying to keep up with her parents. Short legs sucked. It didn't help that she was constantly lost in her own thoughts. Fast walking plus blank face equaled on a mission apparently.

The sun had started to set, and the streetlights began to flicker on. She could see the steam rise as the leftover rain continued to evaporate off the hot street. A cool breeze was passing between the tall buildings. This was the perfect night. Cool and humid. Maybe after she watched Dog Cops, she would take Nova and go sit on the porch for a bit, assuming Nova wouldn't run away again. That cat, always getting into trouble.

Her train of thought stopped as she rounded a corner and walked into something hard. Whatever it was, it had been moving too, because the force of the two of them hitting each other had caused each to rebound and fall to the ground.

"Dude! I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!"

It took her a minute to regain whatever frame of mind she was in and realize that it was a person she had ran into, and said person was apologizing to her.

"What? Oh, um, no. It's my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. I'm sorry." She absentmindedly scratched at the back of her head.

Whoever she had hit extended her a hand as he got up. She reluctantly accepted it and felt a slight blush begin to creep over her face as he pulled her up. She started apologizing again.

"Really, I'm so sorry. I really didn't-" He cut her off.

"Wait, I've seen you somewhere before, haven't I?"

"What? Oh, um, ...no?" She realized that she hadn't even looked at him, her eyes being trained on the ground.

"No, I've defiantly seen you around before. I know I have." There was a slight hint of playfulness in his voice. It was really odd. "Where was it, hmm?"

She glanced over at him. He stared upwards toward a building, his thumb under his chin, tapping his cheek lightly with his finger. His brow furrowed. He was deep in his thoughts she could tell. Ok, so maybe he was right. He did look slightly familiar. He was tall, well, taller than she was, with dark skin and dark shoulder length hair. It slightly flipped out at the ends, so that was... wait, was it longer than hers? Not fair! She missed being able to pull up her hair. She never should have got it cut.

"You're staring...."

"Wait, what?!" She jumped a little. He had caught her off guard. She darted her eyes away from him, franticly looking for a new target to lock onto.

"You were staring at me just now. What exactly is going on in that head of yours?" He was giving her a mischievous smirk.

"Wha-what are you talking about? I...I wasn't staring at you." She felt face burning. Crap. This sucked.

"Wait! I remember now. A few weeks ago at Big Belly Burger. You were staring at me then too. You stood at the door for a really long time..." He made sure to drag out that last part. Oh crap, he was right. Had she stared at him for that long then?

"It..it wasn't me you saw." She hung her head, avoiding his gaze. She was lying of course. How could she forget? It had only been on her mind everyday since then. Man, she really hated having to interact with people she didn't know. Every mistake she made would stick with her for days. Like this entire conversation.

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure it was you."

"Oh, um, no. I think you have the wrong person."

"Huh. I could have sworn..." He turned his head down and muttered something under his breath. Odd. Maybe he was just as bad about getting lost in his thoughts as she was hers.

She cocked her head to the side a bit and squinted her eyes, a slight scowl appearing on her face as she tried to figure this guy out. That earned her a laugh from him. She realized he was back from his thoughts and looking at her again. Her face was not going to cool down anytime soon, the burning only getting worse. "Why... are you laughing?"

"You... you're just...just so...." He laughed again, harder this time. It took a minute, but he finally regained his composure long enough to form a sentence. "I'm Cisco by the way. Cisco Ramon." He extended his right hand, the other reaching up to wipe a tear from his eye.

She gave him a blank stare. How could anyone laugh at a person like that? What had she done?

"And you are....?"

"What? Oh, my name? It's umm, Leah, Leah Elms."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Leah." He took her hand shook it a few times before letting go.

"Ummm, nice to meet you too...?" She was in a state of mild shock. She'd never experienced anything like this before. People usually weren't this... well.... they usually weren't this.

She looked him over again. He gave her a goofy lopsided grin. She looked away as fast as she could. This was starting to get awkward. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Oh no. The alarm! It was almost time!

"CRAP. AGENTS OF SHIELD."

"Oh yea! That's a good show, man. You watch it too?"

"I'm sorry! I have to go. It was nice meeting you. Bye."

"Umm, bye?"

She took off running in the direction of her apartment. Just what was that? Oh, it didn't matter. She would most likely never seem him again. Central City was a big city after all. Right now, she should focus on what was about to happen on Dog Cops tonight. Who would die tonight? Although, that wouldn't even matter if she was late. She picked up her pace as she ran through the night.