The squid and the whale.

I was assaulted by the cold air as I came out of the Chem building this afternoon. Instead of stopping to zip up my coat and pull on my hood, I did it as I scurried out the door and approached the steps.

At the very first step I slipped.

My hands, up in the air from adjusting my hood, began to flail. It was going to be a bad fall as the remaining steps were concrete. It all happened in about one second but I thought about a lot of things in this one second.

Two extremely strong and very welcomed arms encompassed me. Pretty much lifting me into the air, these mysterious arms didn’t so much as make a murmur as he took on the entirety of my body (flailing arms included).

“That was a close one” my mysterious rescuer said from behind me.

I looked back, his arms still around me, and stared at Rescuer’s sunglass covered eyes. “That,” I said “was a close one.”

The comforting moment ended and soon moved into that inevitable awkward one.

I stood straight and brushed the invisible dust from my coat. I gave a smile and Rescuer returned it with a beautiful one of his own.

Taking my minuscule amount of dignity as well as my unreasonably beating heart, I started down the stairs again.

I had walked a few seconds before I realized that I hadn’t thanked Rescuer. I turned around to do so but in true romance novel fashion, he was nowhere to be seen.