Disclaimer: Only Karalynn belongs to me- all other characters belong to Jonathan Larson! Enjoy!
Ch. 1- An Act of Fate
Mark walked hurriedly down the street, looking down at his camera, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. For almost an hour, his camera had been blinking off and on at odd moments; particularly in the middle of filming important shots and it was beginning to piss him off.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he muttered under his breath. He wiggled a switch back and forth and for a moment, the red light flickered on. But then it faded back to black and Mark swore in frustration.
He was about to put the cap back over the lens when he suddenly fell backwards, onto the cold concrete ground, hard. For a minute he lay there, stunned. Flakes of cold snow fell on his face and he stared at the gray sky, blinking.
What the fuck just happened? he thought. He turned his head and saw his camera laying next to his head. The sight of it made him sit up and reach for it.
"Oh shit!" he heard a harsh, angry voice cry out. He looked up from his camera and felt himself shrink into his jacket and scarf.
Kneeling down in front of him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was picking up what seemed to be dozens of papers, scattered all over the snow covered streets. Her long black hair whipped in the wind behind her and she absentmindedly brushed some stray hairs away from her smooth, pale face.
"I.. I'm so sorry." he muttered. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I must have bumped into..."
She looked up at his voice and glared at him. Her large, almond shaped eyes were a startling shade of gray and they flashed with anger. "Christ, I know what happened!" she snapped. "Now are you gonna just sit there and gawk at me or are you gonna help me pick up these papers before they get wet?!"
Matt scampered to his knees, setting his camera down carefully next to him, and picked up as many papers as he could. He looked up again and handed them to the very angry woman in front of him. She grabbed them from him and stuffed them back into the black leather briefcase she was holding.
She stood up, ignoring the hand he held out to her and looked down at her shirt. Mark was horrified at what he saw. In front of her crisp white polo was a very large, very obvious, dark brown coffee stain. An empty coffee cup lay on its side next to her boots.
"Oh my God." he said, stunned. Her gray eyes followed his gaze and grew wide.
"Oh no way." she said in a low voice. "No way. No fucking way!"
"I am so sorry..." Mark began but then her face contorted with fury and she looked up at him. Mark had seen the crazed look in her eyes before. It was the same look Roger would give him right before he...
"You asshole!"
...yelled at him.
Mark took a step back and then braced himself for the flurry of words that he knew was headed his way.
He wasn't disappointed.
"You fucking, clumsy ass jerk!" she yelled. "I have to get to a meeting with my senior advisor in twenty minutes so he can review my thesis paper, which you so nicely picked up out of order, and now I'll be late because I have to change because you weren't looking where you were going!"
Mark winced. He peeked at her. "Are you done?" he asked meekly.
Her head snapped up at him and he could almost hear her hiss at him. "You ruined what could be the most important day of my graduate career." she said. She looked back down at her shirt and shook her head. "God, I hope something falls on your head today."
She turned to leave but Mark grabbed her arm. "Wait. Miss.. uh.." he stammered. She stopped and stared at his hand on her arm. He let go and took a step back.
"Look, I feel really bad." he said. "I live up the street. I, uh, I mean my roommate's girlfriend probably has a shirt in your size. Her tastes might not be as.. um, conservative as yours but you might be able to get to your appointment on time." He took a deep breath and held it as she seemed to consider his offer.
She looked at him, up and down and then sighed. "Well, you look harmless enough." she said finally and Mark let out his breath. He picked up his camera and then gestured down the street in the opposite direction.
"Our loft is this way." he said. She rolled her eyes and followed him.
They both walked briskly, in silence for a few moments and Mark was able to steal sidelong glances at his companion.
She was definitely beautiful and not just in the classic sense. She could have been a movie star for all he knew but there was something different about her. Her face was a study in contrasts. Dark red full lips, set against porcelain perfect white skin framed with raven black hair. And her eyes.... her eyes were the color of silver coins, the color of granite, of an overcast sky on a rainy day. They matched almost perfectly with her knee length gray skirt.
Mark fought the urge to bring his camera up to his eyes and capture her on film. As they walked down the street, Mark noticed that the strangers that passed them craned their necks to look at her. But she didn't seem to notice, or if she did- she didn't care. Her jaw was set in anger and she looked straight ahead even though she didn't know where she was headed.
"So.. you're a grad student?" he asked. "MA?"
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Ph.d' she said coldly.
"NYU?"
"Correct."
Mark felt numb. She's pretty and smart. Great. he thought. This is probably the last time I'll see her again.
"Oh." Mark said. "Uh, I'm Mark, by the way."
"Karalynn." she said briskly.
"That's a.. uh, pretty name."
She threw him an incredulous look, as if she couldn't believe the line he just gave her. "It's a name."
"Right." Mark stopped in front of his building but Karalynn kept walking.
"Uh, Karalynn?" he called out. Karalynn turned around and Mark pointed up.
"This is it." he said. She looked up, taking it in and looked back at him, confused.
"You actually... live in this?" she said. He nodded, feeling his own pale cheeks burn with shame. He knew how badly it must have looked in her eyes. Judging from her clothing, her leather briefcase and her tone- she was wealthy. Well, wealthier than him at least.
He ran his fingers through his dirty, spiky blonde hair and offered her a crooked smile. "Home sweet home?"
She followed Mark up the stairs, matched him stride for stride with her long legs and waited impatiently as he nervously jiggled his key in the lock. He glanced over at her and smiled. "This happens every winter. When it gets cold and wet like this, the lock gets rusty and...."
"Just open it."
He finally got the door open, almost having to kick it down and she followed him in. The weight of her gaze was heavy as she explored his home and he watched her fretfully.
"You live here." she said. "Seriously?"
"It's not much but I wouldn't trade it in for anything." he said sincerely. She glanced at him oddly and for a moment, a flicker of amusement crossed her face. It disappeared like smoke in the wind.
"Okay. I really don't have all day." she said crossly. Mark put his camera down on the kitchen table and snapped to action.
"Right. The shirt. Mimi's clothes are in Roger's room. Hold on." he said, running across the room to Roger's bedroom.
Mark sighed as he flung open the door. Roger's room was, well, a disaster area. Clothes covered almost every surface and Mark couldn't tell Roger's clothing from Mimi's. Okay, shit. Mark thought, panicking,
She's gonna rip out my heart if I don't come up with something. Come on, Cohen, think!
He walked back outside and took a deep breath for courage. "Okay, I can't find anything in there that you might be able to wear but...."
Mark suddenly saw the crazed look return to her eyes and he bit his lip, ready for another attack.
But then he was saved.
He could have cried for joy.
Roger walked in.
"Hey Mark, I ..." Roger's blue eyes took a quick inventory of Karalynn and he froze. "Whoa... Sorry buddy. I didn't know you had company. I'll go down to Mimi's and..."
Karalynn whirled around and stomped towards the door. "No, he doesn't have company." she snapped. "In fact, now I'm gonna be a good thirty minutes late to my appointment thanks to your clumsy retard of a roommate!"
"Hey wait a minute you stuck up..." Roger began and put down his guitar case, ready to start battle. Mark knew he had to stop them both before they killed each other.
"Karalynn! I have an idea!" he yelled over their voices. Both Roger and Karalynn stopped and turned towards Mark. "I have a clean white polo you might be able to wear. I mean, it'll probably be a little big on you but at least you'll get to your appointment on time."
She seemed to consider it for a moment and he knew her temper had been curbed when she took a step back towards him.
"Fine." she said. "Where is it?"
Mark grinned and gestured to his room. "I'll run in and get it and you can change in my room."
She nodded and he ran in his bedroom, quickly searching through his closet until he found the coveted white polo. It was all the way in back of his closet. He frantically brushed off invisible lint with his hand and ran back outside.
Before he could say a word, Karalynn grabbed it out of his hand and walked into his room, slamming the door shut.
Mark looked at Roger.
"What a fucking bitch." Roger exclaimed.
"Shhh!" Mark said, holding his finger up to his lips. "Shit, Roger, did you see her shirt? I did that. I ran into her and made her spill her coffee all over herself. This is the least I could..."
"Yeah right, Mark." Roger hissed. "Of course you ignored the fact that she's a complete bitch. So she has a pretty face- was that enough to make you lose your fucking mind?"
"Hey, Karalynn being gorgeous had nothing to do with..."
"It's too big but it'll do."
Mark turned around, almost losing his balance. Karalynn stood in his doorway, wearing his white shirt. It hung loosely on her shoulders and floated around her waist.
"I'll come back here and give it back to you as soon as my meeting is over." she said. "I'll leave my shirt here as collateral. I should be back in an hour."
"Um, sounds great." Mark said. She gave him another strange look and held her briefcase up to her chest, almost like a shield as she walked past him.
"Right." she said. She threw Roger an angry look and he glowered at her before she closed their door behind her.
Mark listened to the sound of her steps on their creaky old stairs and turned around to face Roger when they disappeared altogether.
"Explain." Roger said. Mark picked up his camera and sat down on top of the table.
"I was walking to the park cuz I wanted to film some shots of the snow coming down on the trees. I was trying to fix this damn thing and... well, ran into Karalynn. That's her name." Mark said. "You saw her shirt.. what I did... so I told her she could borrow my roommate's girlfriend's shirt... one of Mimi's and that's how she ended up here."
"Uh huh." Roger said, crossing his arms across his chest. His blue eyes studied Mark's face. Mark's normally pale cheeks were flushed and his blue eyes behind his thick glasses were dark and...
"Holy shit." Roger said, his lips curving up in a smile. "I never believed in love at first sight but..."
Mark looked at him, confused at first before he realized what Roger meant.
"No." he said, sitting up. "I am not in love with... Roooger!" he whined. "I just met.."
Roger laughed and crashed on the couch, opening his guitar case. He lifted the precious instrument, holding it lovingly before setting it down on his lap.
"Mark, she's a snob. Forget about her." he said, tuning his guitar. "I mean, even I have to admit, she's a pretty snob, a little on the thin side but pretty. But not as sexy as Mimi. Hell, no one is as sexy as Mimi...."
Mark smiled at him and looked back down at his camera. "Well, I think Karalynn is beautiful." he said quietly.
"What is it with you and cruel women?" Roger chuckled, not looking up. "First Maureen the drama queen. Now Karalynn, the.."
"NYU grad student out to get her Ph.d" Mark finished for him. Roger looked up and whistled.
"Okay so she's a smart snob." Roger said. "She's a mean snob. She's a cute snob. She's still a SNOB!"
Mark rolled his eyes and looked back down at his camera. Roger went back to tuning his guitar but looked up when he heard Mark laugh out loud.
"She did it." Mark said. "I can't believe this."
"The snob did what?"
Mark ignored Roger's comment and looked up.
"She fixed my camera." Mark said, sounding amazed. He held up the now perfectly working camera for Roger to see. "If I hadn't run into her my camera would have still been broken."
"So you think this is an act of fate?" Roger asked in disbelief.
Mark shrugged but his smile gave him away.
Three hours later, Mark woke up to hear a loud pounding on the door.
He looked up and scratched his eyes. He had fallen asleep on top of the table. He glanced over to where Roger had been and found that he was gone.
Probably at Mimi's place, he thought sleepily.
"Hello?" A female voice called out from behind the door. Mark stared at it for a moment, wondering who could be knocking at their front door. Everyone Roger and Mark knew had a key.
Mark sat up and jumped off of the table. He yawned as he walked over to the door and opened it.
As soon as he saw who it was, he straightened up.
"Karalynn!" he exclaimed.
She stood in front of him and blinked. "I'm sorry I'm late." she said. Her voice sounded strangely subdued now. "My meeting ran a little late."
Mark opened the door wider and stepped aside. "Come in." he said. "It's okay. I wasn't going anywhere today anyway."
She walked in and looked at him with her large gray eyes. She was like almost like a doll, he thought, once again struck by her beauty. Her face was child like and clear.
"Liar." she said.
"Huh?"
She put her briefcase down on the table next to his camera and looked up at him. "You were on your way somewhere this morning." she said.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood across from her. "Yeah but it wasn't important." he said honestly. "I just wanted to get some shots of the park in January."
She looked down at his camera. "You're a filmmaker?"
He smiled slightly and shrugged. "Not a very successful one." he muttered. "Or for that matter, a good one."
She smiled slightly at him and he realized it was the first time he had seen her smile. "I guess sometimes, we are our own worst critics." she said quietly.
They stared at each other for an awkward amount of time and Mark finally looked away.
"So how'd your meeting go?" he asked, staring at her briefcase. "Were you late?"
"Only by five minutes." She looked around the loft again. "My advisor spent two hours reading my entire paper. Do you know how it feels to have someone analyze your work, right in front of you?"
He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah. Actually I do." he said, "It's nerve wrecking."
He thought about all the times he had shown film companies his films and gotten turned down before it had even ended on the screen.
She smiled again.
"So how'd you do?" Mark asked. "On your paper. What'd your advisor say?"
"He said it was a brilliant piece of work." she said. "As usual."
For some reason she looked melancholy as she said it.
"Oh that's great right?" Mark said, raising his voice.
She slowly turned her face back towards him. "Sure, yeah." she said dully.
"So what's your doctoral gonna be in?"
"Psychology." She gestured at a chair. "Can I sit down? It's been a long day and..."
"Of course!" Mark watched as she sat down. Her face was stamped with weariness and Mark wondered what it would be like to touch her face. He sat down next to her and stared at his camera again.
He didn't know what to say. His mouth felt as dry and as coarse as a desert and he was sure his heart was beating so hard, Karalynn could hear it. He glanced at her. She was staring at her briefcase intently.
"I'm really sorry about your shirt."
Karalynn looked at him and blinked. She looked back down at his shirt and sat up.
"Shit, I almost forgot. This is yours." she muttered.
"It's cool, you can wear it home." he said. "It's not like I'm gonna need it anytime soon."
"Not a big on playing dress up, right?"
"Right."
"Do you think the stain will come out?"
She shrugged. "Coffee on silk." she said. "Who knows, maybe if the laundry gods smile down on me.."
"Look, I'm really sorry." he said again. "I'll pay for the dry cleaning charges and if it doesn't come out, I'll buy you a new one."
She arched her eyebrow at him and crossed her arms. "The shirt is from Barney's."
Mark gulped. A shirt from there would cost more than... well, more than he could afford.
And then she laughed, startling him. "Hey, you know what? It's not that big of a deal. It's just a shirt." she said. "And it was an accident. I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that this morning. I have a really bad temper and..."
"It's cool." Mark said. "My roommate, Roger, has a worse temper. Uh, not that I'm saying you have a bad temper ... um... shit, never mind."
She smiled at him. "You guys are close?" she asked. Her face seemed to soften as they spoke and he wanted to keep her talking.
"Bestfriends since high school." he said. Mark glanced out the window and gestured towards it. "Hey look, the sun's going down."
Karalynn turned around and stood up. "I should be going home." she muttered. "It'll get dark soon and it's snowing pretty heavily now..."
Mark stood up and felt his heart sink. "Yeah, you're right."
He watched as Karalynn walked into his room and walked out, holding her shirt. She picked up her briefcase and looked at him.
"It was nice meeting you, Mark." she said, holding out one slim, delicate hand. He shook her hand and hesitated before letting it go.
"Um, hey, do you wanna get a cup of coffee sometime?" he asked, surprising himself. Christ, I hope she doesn't belt me, he thought.
She looked at him and Mark forced himself not to look away. "You can even throw it on my shirt if you want."
She finally gave him the smile he had been hoping to see again.
"Promise?"
He laughed. "Yeah, I promise. I'll even film it and give you a copy if you want."
"I'm pretty busy during the week..."
"Tomorrow's Saturday." he said, a little too eagerly. He felt his cheeks burn and he wanted to close his eyes so he couldn't see her face as she said...
"Okay." she said. He stared at her as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote something down on it. She handed it to him and Mark stared at it in disbelief.
Her number.
She had given him her number.
Before he could force himself to speak, she turned around and walked out of the door.
Once again, he listened to the sound of her footsteps as they disappeared down the stairwell.
He sat back down on his chair and smiled to himself.
"An act of fate?" he said to himself in empty loft. "Maybe. Maybe."
Mark hoped so.
Ch. 1- An Act of Fate
Mark walked hurriedly down the street, looking down at his camera, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. For almost an hour, his camera had been blinking off and on at odd moments; particularly in the middle of filming important shots and it was beginning to piss him off.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he muttered under his breath. He wiggled a switch back and forth and for a moment, the red light flickered on. But then it faded back to black and Mark swore in frustration.
He was about to put the cap back over the lens when he suddenly fell backwards, onto the cold concrete ground, hard. For a minute he lay there, stunned. Flakes of cold snow fell on his face and he stared at the gray sky, blinking.
What the fuck just happened? he thought. He turned his head and saw his camera laying next to his head. The sight of it made him sit up and reach for it.
"Oh shit!" he heard a harsh, angry voice cry out. He looked up from his camera and felt himself shrink into his jacket and scarf.
Kneeling down in front of him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was picking up what seemed to be dozens of papers, scattered all over the snow covered streets. Her long black hair whipped in the wind behind her and she absentmindedly brushed some stray hairs away from her smooth, pale face.
"I.. I'm so sorry." he muttered. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I must have bumped into..."
She looked up at his voice and glared at him. Her large, almond shaped eyes were a startling shade of gray and they flashed with anger. "Christ, I know what happened!" she snapped. "Now are you gonna just sit there and gawk at me or are you gonna help me pick up these papers before they get wet?!"
Matt scampered to his knees, setting his camera down carefully next to him, and picked up as many papers as he could. He looked up again and handed them to the very angry woman in front of him. She grabbed them from him and stuffed them back into the black leather briefcase she was holding.
She stood up, ignoring the hand he held out to her and looked down at her shirt. Mark was horrified at what he saw. In front of her crisp white polo was a very large, very obvious, dark brown coffee stain. An empty coffee cup lay on its side next to her boots.
"Oh my God." he said, stunned. Her gray eyes followed his gaze and grew wide.
"Oh no way." she said in a low voice. "No way. No fucking way!"
"I am so sorry..." Mark began but then her face contorted with fury and she looked up at him. Mark had seen the crazed look in her eyes before. It was the same look Roger would give him right before he...
"You asshole!"
...yelled at him.
Mark took a step back and then braced himself for the flurry of words that he knew was headed his way.
He wasn't disappointed.
"You fucking, clumsy ass jerk!" she yelled. "I have to get to a meeting with my senior advisor in twenty minutes so he can review my thesis paper, which you so nicely picked up out of order, and now I'll be late because I have to change because you weren't looking where you were going!"
Mark winced. He peeked at her. "Are you done?" he asked meekly.
Her head snapped up at him and he could almost hear her hiss at him. "You ruined what could be the most important day of my graduate career." she said. She looked back down at her shirt and shook her head. "God, I hope something falls on your head today."
She turned to leave but Mark grabbed her arm. "Wait. Miss.. uh.." he stammered. She stopped and stared at his hand on her arm. He let go and took a step back.
"Look, I feel really bad." he said. "I live up the street. I, uh, I mean my roommate's girlfriend probably has a shirt in your size. Her tastes might not be as.. um, conservative as yours but you might be able to get to your appointment on time." He took a deep breath and held it as she seemed to consider his offer.
She looked at him, up and down and then sighed. "Well, you look harmless enough." she said finally and Mark let out his breath. He picked up his camera and then gestured down the street in the opposite direction.
"Our loft is this way." he said. She rolled her eyes and followed him.
They both walked briskly, in silence for a few moments and Mark was able to steal sidelong glances at his companion.
She was definitely beautiful and not just in the classic sense. She could have been a movie star for all he knew but there was something different about her. Her face was a study in contrasts. Dark red full lips, set against porcelain perfect white skin framed with raven black hair. And her eyes.... her eyes were the color of silver coins, the color of granite, of an overcast sky on a rainy day. They matched almost perfectly with her knee length gray skirt.
Mark fought the urge to bring his camera up to his eyes and capture her on film. As they walked down the street, Mark noticed that the strangers that passed them craned their necks to look at her. But she didn't seem to notice, or if she did- she didn't care. Her jaw was set in anger and she looked straight ahead even though she didn't know where she was headed.
"So.. you're a grad student?" he asked. "MA?"
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Ph.d' she said coldly.
"NYU?"
"Correct."
Mark felt numb. She's pretty and smart. Great. he thought. This is probably the last time I'll see her again.
"Oh." Mark said. "Uh, I'm Mark, by the way."
"Karalynn." she said briskly.
"That's a.. uh, pretty name."
She threw him an incredulous look, as if she couldn't believe the line he just gave her. "It's a name."
"Right." Mark stopped in front of his building but Karalynn kept walking.
"Uh, Karalynn?" he called out. Karalynn turned around and Mark pointed up.
"This is it." he said. She looked up, taking it in and looked back at him, confused.
"You actually... live in this?" she said. He nodded, feeling his own pale cheeks burn with shame. He knew how badly it must have looked in her eyes. Judging from her clothing, her leather briefcase and her tone- she was wealthy. Well, wealthier than him at least.
He ran his fingers through his dirty, spiky blonde hair and offered her a crooked smile. "Home sweet home?"
She followed Mark up the stairs, matched him stride for stride with her long legs and waited impatiently as he nervously jiggled his key in the lock. He glanced over at her and smiled. "This happens every winter. When it gets cold and wet like this, the lock gets rusty and...."
"Just open it."
He finally got the door open, almost having to kick it down and she followed him in. The weight of her gaze was heavy as she explored his home and he watched her fretfully.
"You live here." she said. "Seriously?"
"It's not much but I wouldn't trade it in for anything." he said sincerely. She glanced at him oddly and for a moment, a flicker of amusement crossed her face. It disappeared like smoke in the wind.
"Okay. I really don't have all day." she said crossly. Mark put his camera down on the kitchen table and snapped to action.
"Right. The shirt. Mimi's clothes are in Roger's room. Hold on." he said, running across the room to Roger's bedroom.
Mark sighed as he flung open the door. Roger's room was, well, a disaster area. Clothes covered almost every surface and Mark couldn't tell Roger's clothing from Mimi's. Okay, shit. Mark thought, panicking,
She's gonna rip out my heart if I don't come up with something. Come on, Cohen, think!
He walked back outside and took a deep breath for courage. "Okay, I can't find anything in there that you might be able to wear but...."
Mark suddenly saw the crazed look return to her eyes and he bit his lip, ready for another attack.
But then he was saved.
He could have cried for joy.
Roger walked in.
"Hey Mark, I ..." Roger's blue eyes took a quick inventory of Karalynn and he froze. "Whoa... Sorry buddy. I didn't know you had company. I'll go down to Mimi's and..."
Karalynn whirled around and stomped towards the door. "No, he doesn't have company." she snapped. "In fact, now I'm gonna be a good thirty minutes late to my appointment thanks to your clumsy retard of a roommate!"
"Hey wait a minute you stuck up..." Roger began and put down his guitar case, ready to start battle. Mark knew he had to stop them both before they killed each other.
"Karalynn! I have an idea!" he yelled over their voices. Both Roger and Karalynn stopped and turned towards Mark. "I have a clean white polo you might be able to wear. I mean, it'll probably be a little big on you but at least you'll get to your appointment on time."
She seemed to consider it for a moment and he knew her temper had been curbed when she took a step back towards him.
"Fine." she said. "Where is it?"
Mark grinned and gestured to his room. "I'll run in and get it and you can change in my room."
She nodded and he ran in his bedroom, quickly searching through his closet until he found the coveted white polo. It was all the way in back of his closet. He frantically brushed off invisible lint with his hand and ran back outside.
Before he could say a word, Karalynn grabbed it out of his hand and walked into his room, slamming the door shut.
Mark looked at Roger.
"What a fucking bitch." Roger exclaimed.
"Shhh!" Mark said, holding his finger up to his lips. "Shit, Roger, did you see her shirt? I did that. I ran into her and made her spill her coffee all over herself. This is the least I could..."
"Yeah right, Mark." Roger hissed. "Of course you ignored the fact that she's a complete bitch. So she has a pretty face- was that enough to make you lose your fucking mind?"
"Hey, Karalynn being gorgeous had nothing to do with..."
"It's too big but it'll do."
Mark turned around, almost losing his balance. Karalynn stood in his doorway, wearing his white shirt. It hung loosely on her shoulders and floated around her waist.
"I'll come back here and give it back to you as soon as my meeting is over." she said. "I'll leave my shirt here as collateral. I should be back in an hour."
"Um, sounds great." Mark said. She gave him another strange look and held her briefcase up to her chest, almost like a shield as she walked past him.
"Right." she said. She threw Roger an angry look and he glowered at her before she closed their door behind her.
Mark listened to the sound of her steps on their creaky old stairs and turned around to face Roger when they disappeared altogether.
"Explain." Roger said. Mark picked up his camera and sat down on top of the table.
"I was walking to the park cuz I wanted to film some shots of the snow coming down on the trees. I was trying to fix this damn thing and... well, ran into Karalynn. That's her name." Mark said. "You saw her shirt.. what I did... so I told her she could borrow my roommate's girlfriend's shirt... one of Mimi's and that's how she ended up here."
"Uh huh." Roger said, crossing his arms across his chest. His blue eyes studied Mark's face. Mark's normally pale cheeks were flushed and his blue eyes behind his thick glasses were dark and...
"Holy shit." Roger said, his lips curving up in a smile. "I never believed in love at first sight but..."
Mark looked at him, confused at first before he realized what Roger meant.
"No." he said, sitting up. "I am not in love with... Roooger!" he whined. "I just met.."
Roger laughed and crashed on the couch, opening his guitar case. He lifted the precious instrument, holding it lovingly before setting it down on his lap.
"Mark, she's a snob. Forget about her." he said, tuning his guitar. "I mean, even I have to admit, she's a pretty snob, a little on the thin side but pretty. But not as sexy as Mimi. Hell, no one is as sexy as Mimi...."
Mark smiled at him and looked back down at his camera. "Well, I think Karalynn is beautiful." he said quietly.
"What is it with you and cruel women?" Roger chuckled, not looking up. "First Maureen the drama queen. Now Karalynn, the.."
"NYU grad student out to get her Ph.d" Mark finished for him. Roger looked up and whistled.
"Okay so she's a smart snob." Roger said. "She's a mean snob. She's a cute snob. She's still a SNOB!"
Mark rolled his eyes and looked back down at his camera. Roger went back to tuning his guitar but looked up when he heard Mark laugh out loud.
"She did it." Mark said. "I can't believe this."
"The snob did what?"
Mark ignored Roger's comment and looked up.
"She fixed my camera." Mark said, sounding amazed. He held up the now perfectly working camera for Roger to see. "If I hadn't run into her my camera would have still been broken."
"So you think this is an act of fate?" Roger asked in disbelief.
Mark shrugged but his smile gave him away.
Three hours later, Mark woke up to hear a loud pounding on the door.
He looked up and scratched his eyes. He had fallen asleep on top of the table. He glanced over to where Roger had been and found that he was gone.
Probably at Mimi's place, he thought sleepily.
"Hello?" A female voice called out from behind the door. Mark stared at it for a moment, wondering who could be knocking at their front door. Everyone Roger and Mark knew had a key.
Mark sat up and jumped off of the table. He yawned as he walked over to the door and opened it.
As soon as he saw who it was, he straightened up.
"Karalynn!" he exclaimed.
She stood in front of him and blinked. "I'm sorry I'm late." she said. Her voice sounded strangely subdued now. "My meeting ran a little late."
Mark opened the door wider and stepped aside. "Come in." he said. "It's okay. I wasn't going anywhere today anyway."
She walked in and looked at him with her large gray eyes. She was like almost like a doll, he thought, once again struck by her beauty. Her face was child like and clear.
"Liar." she said.
"Huh?"
She put her briefcase down on the table next to his camera and looked up at him. "You were on your way somewhere this morning." she said.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood across from her. "Yeah but it wasn't important." he said honestly. "I just wanted to get some shots of the park in January."
She looked down at his camera. "You're a filmmaker?"
He smiled slightly and shrugged. "Not a very successful one." he muttered. "Or for that matter, a good one."
She smiled slightly at him and he realized it was the first time he had seen her smile. "I guess sometimes, we are our own worst critics." she said quietly.
They stared at each other for an awkward amount of time and Mark finally looked away.
"So how'd your meeting go?" he asked, staring at her briefcase. "Were you late?"
"Only by five minutes." She looked around the loft again. "My advisor spent two hours reading my entire paper. Do you know how it feels to have someone analyze your work, right in front of you?"
He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah. Actually I do." he said, "It's nerve wrecking."
He thought about all the times he had shown film companies his films and gotten turned down before it had even ended on the screen.
She smiled again.
"So how'd you do?" Mark asked. "On your paper. What'd your advisor say?"
"He said it was a brilliant piece of work." she said. "As usual."
For some reason she looked melancholy as she said it.
"Oh that's great right?" Mark said, raising his voice.
She slowly turned her face back towards him. "Sure, yeah." she said dully.
"So what's your doctoral gonna be in?"
"Psychology." She gestured at a chair. "Can I sit down? It's been a long day and..."
"Of course!" Mark watched as she sat down. Her face was stamped with weariness and Mark wondered what it would be like to touch her face. He sat down next to her and stared at his camera again.
He didn't know what to say. His mouth felt as dry and as coarse as a desert and he was sure his heart was beating so hard, Karalynn could hear it. He glanced at her. She was staring at her briefcase intently.
"I'm really sorry about your shirt."
Karalynn looked at him and blinked. She looked back down at his shirt and sat up.
"Shit, I almost forgot. This is yours." she muttered.
"It's cool, you can wear it home." he said. "It's not like I'm gonna need it anytime soon."
"Not a big on playing dress up, right?"
"Right."
"Do you think the stain will come out?"
She shrugged. "Coffee on silk." she said. "Who knows, maybe if the laundry gods smile down on me.."
"Look, I'm really sorry." he said again. "I'll pay for the dry cleaning charges and if it doesn't come out, I'll buy you a new one."
She arched her eyebrow at him and crossed her arms. "The shirt is from Barney's."
Mark gulped. A shirt from there would cost more than... well, more than he could afford.
And then she laughed, startling him. "Hey, you know what? It's not that big of a deal. It's just a shirt." she said. "And it was an accident. I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that this morning. I have a really bad temper and..."
"It's cool." Mark said. "My roommate, Roger, has a worse temper. Uh, not that I'm saying you have a bad temper ... um... shit, never mind."
She smiled at him. "You guys are close?" she asked. Her face seemed to soften as they spoke and he wanted to keep her talking.
"Bestfriends since high school." he said. Mark glanced out the window and gestured towards it. "Hey look, the sun's going down."
Karalynn turned around and stood up. "I should be going home." she muttered. "It'll get dark soon and it's snowing pretty heavily now..."
Mark stood up and felt his heart sink. "Yeah, you're right."
He watched as Karalynn walked into his room and walked out, holding her shirt. She picked up her briefcase and looked at him.
"It was nice meeting you, Mark." she said, holding out one slim, delicate hand. He shook her hand and hesitated before letting it go.
"Um, hey, do you wanna get a cup of coffee sometime?" he asked, surprising himself. Christ, I hope she doesn't belt me, he thought.
She looked at him and Mark forced himself not to look away. "You can even throw it on my shirt if you want."
She finally gave him the smile he had been hoping to see again.
"Promise?"
He laughed. "Yeah, I promise. I'll even film it and give you a copy if you want."
"I'm pretty busy during the week..."
"Tomorrow's Saturday." he said, a little too eagerly. He felt his cheeks burn and he wanted to close his eyes so he couldn't see her face as she said...
"Okay." she said. He stared at her as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote something down on it. She handed it to him and Mark stared at it in disbelief.
Her number.
She had given him her number.
Before he could force himself to speak, she turned around and walked out of the door.
Once again, he listened to the sound of her footsteps as they disappeared down the stairwell.
He sat back down on his chair and smiled to himself.
"An act of fate?" he said to himself in empty loft. "Maybe. Maybe."
Mark hoped so.