Before

Tis but a Scratch!

Confident and relieved, a young business woman entered the elevator. She was happy with the meeting finally being over, after not sleeping all night with nerves, she undid her hairclip in relief, leaving her long blonde curls bounce down past her shoulders as she hated her hair up.

This was her first week in this new work environment. She had been transferred from her own branch from the United Kingdom. Being completely hesitant about going as it was make or break trip. Personally though she had always wanted to visit the states, but as a leisurely holiday not as a major business deal opportunity.

Luckily she was only staying for two weeks, as there was a cool down period after she had been given a contract offer. Her accommodation was all booked in the hotel and she had a rental car keeping her transport issues at ease, along with money for petrol... or gas as she now had to call it.
Her independence thrived as she had always been alone, with no real family apart from her father. This had resulted in her will to succeed, so she could show no matter What, life is what you make of it.

This was the case with this trip, she could not let this particular business deal go stale. The hospitality company needed more clients overseas and USA was an ideal spot for making a start. She had done the first of three major appointments, only four days until the next one..

Entering the Carpark, she saw her rental car parked up waiting for her. The sun's rays were belting down on her pale freckled skin and she was still getting used to the constant heat. She dug her keys out her bag whilst retrieving other essential items for immediate use.

Once inside, she sat back and exhaled with a mixture of emotions. She placed a cigarette to her lips, but sadly there was no lighter to be seen. She had a thing about collecting Clipper and Zippo lighters of all kind, thus had to go back to get it.

She opened her car door swiftly whilst undoing her seatbelt...

BANG!!!

The Young Lady jumped at the loud metal crash and a force going through her arm. She then turned to discover the door of her car had physically damaged the vehicle that had immaculately appeared in a split of a second.

She placed her head in her hands as the driver emerged to examine his car, slowly placing her head up she peered through her fingers to see what damage she had caused. No way was she prepared to face anything just yet....

The young man got out of his car, to then casually walked around to look at the door wedged into the bodywork. He shook his head and smiled to himself to then turn to face the culprit. His brown eyes met her blue eyes and he just smiled at her, she mirrored resulting in them both giggling and shaking heads.

"I'm so sorry!!! I was in such a rush to get something I slammed my door open... I didn't even see you had pulled up to park! I can pay for all the work, Oh fuck, I'm so sorry" she explained as she got out of her car

"Are you okay?" He asked her immediately leaving her wide eyed at that being his first question

"Um yeah I'm fine! I'm more concerned about you Lovely, I've just ruined your day with this shit, I'm going to pay for it all!"

He smiled at her, to then start to slowly peel her car door out from the side of his, revealing the full damage for them both.

"Oh it's just a scratch, I'm sure I can buff it out at home" he flaked the paint in the huge dent running down his side passengers door and turned to smirk at her. She was stood still determining whether he was being sarcastic or not.

"Just a scratch... Oh my, don't make me laugh please? Thankyou for being so patient with me, most Dudes would be screaming Dumb Blonde in my face"

"Well screaming is not going to get either of us anywhere in this situation, also I would never treat you like that, it has happened so let's just deal with it best way possible"

For the next half hour the pair spent the time introducing and getting contact numbers exchanged in order to sort out damage. After a phonecall to the local car repair shop, it was decided they would meet that Friday to finalise it all whilst he waited for his car.

When they went to part ways he gave her a friendly hug which caught her off guard...

"I will see you Friday then Alice"

And that was how Alice and Robin met...