Killian arrived at the café at half-past seven the next morning and found it practically deserted. The server he'd been dealing with all week was quick to rush to his side and take his breakfast order, but there were no signs of the spunky blonde he'd arranged to meet.
He hadn't wanted to bring his laptop with him if they were going for a hike, so Killian had packed a notepad and a few pens, just in case inspiration struck. While he waited for his food to be brought over to him, he pulled out his pad and one of the pens, fully intending to use his free time to work. However, as the clock ticked closer to eight, he found himself continually staring down at a blank sheet of paper, the only marks on it the occasional dots of ink he made as he tapped his pen against the table.
Killian wasn't the kind of person who counted down minutes, nor was he the kind of person who often became annoyed when people were late for previously agreed meetings. He knew that real life rarely had a habit of running on schedule. However, that morning, things were a little different. He couldn't seem to shake the feeling that someone was having a good laugh at him, and as those final few minutes ticked by, that suspicion only seemed to intensify.
At eight o'clock on the dot, Killian stood up to stretch his legs and craned his head up and down the street, looking for any sign of his hiking partner.
"You do know there's a whole building behind you, right?"
He was a little ashamed of the small squeak that left his mouth as he spun around to face her with his hand resting over his pounding heart.
"I… you, uh… how… how long have you been here?"
"I got here before you did," she chuckled, making her way out onto the deck and then over to where he'd been sitting.
She was dressed for their hike in a pair of distressed denim shorts that ended high on her thighs, a long-sleeved black t-shirt that she had pushed up over her elbows, and a pair of bright white sneakers. Killian suddenly felt painfully overdressed in his best jeans and Ralph Lauren polo shirt.
"You'd have known that," she continued, hooking a thumb over her shoulder, "If you'd actually bothered to step insidethe restaurant."
Killian felt himself flush slightly as he made his way back over to his empty notepad. "I uh… I like the view out here," he defended hotly.
"Me too," she told him, and something inside him rejoiced at finding yet another common belief they seemed to share. Of course, that joy was short-lived given the next few words she spoke. "But at this time of the morning, the smell of coffee inside the building is just too tempting to resist."
Killian chuckled awkwardly as he slid his things back into his bag and then looped it over his shoulder. "I uh… I wouldn't know. I don't drink coffee."
Emma seemed to freeze in place before she turned very slowly to face him, her expression falling into one of complete and utter confusion. "You don't drink coffee?" she asked.
"No."
"How do you function in the morning?"
Killian shrugged his shoulders as he said, "I dunno, the same way everyone else does?"
"Everyone else drinks coffee," she argued. "What do you drink instead? Hot Cocoa?"
"Water or orange juice mainly."
Emma's head tilted slightly to one side as she took a moment to consider both options before finally asking, "Are you sure you're human, because I've never met another adult who doesn't drink coffee."
"You clearly don't get out much," he teased gently, inclining his head towards the sidewalk that lined the street.
"You could say that," she agreed with a tight smile, as she set off down the road that would take them back towards the holiday home Killian had been renting.
He could tell that what he'd said had struck a nerve, so instead of pushing the issue further, Killian simply asked, "Where exactly are we going?"
"For a hike," she explained.
He opened his mouth to ask where they would be hiking, but before he could speak, Emma pivoted neatly on the balls of her feet to face him and continued walking backward as she said, "I found this little path close to where I'm staying that I wanted to explore. I just haven't had the chance to do so yet."
"How uh… how long have you been here?" he asked, lengthening his stride as she turned back around so that he could fall into step beside her.
"A couple of weeks. I went to Paris first but it wasn't terribly constructive towards my goals, so I asked around for somewhere in the country that would be inspirational and a little less exciting. A few of the natives pointed me in this direction. How about you?"
"Oh, I've uh… I got here on Sunday," he explained, suddenly realizing why she seemed to know so much more about the village than he did. "What were you hoping to do while you were in Paris?" he asked. At her questioning look, Killian added, "You said it wasn't constructive towards your goals. I was just wondering what those goals were."
Emma took a moment to study him closely from the corners of her eyes before she finally spoke. Killian felt like he was being appraised for something, but he wasn't exactly sure what that something was.
"Just stuff I need to do for work," she eventually explained, and he could tell she was being deliberately vague. "However, it's hard to be productive when you're surrounded by so much culture."
"I get that," he chuckled. "I love Paris but if I'm going to make my editor happy, I knew I had to come somewhere that wouldn't allow me to spend eight hours a day at the Louvre."
Emma took a sharp turn off the road just before they came to the street that would lead to his little holiday home, and Killian was ashamed of himself for never having noticed the path that seemed to be carved into the mountainside before.
"So, you're a writer?" she pressed. "I thought you said you were a journalist?"
"I can't be both?" he teased, and Emma nodded her head slowly to concede that he'd made a good point.
"What kind of journalist are you?"
"Huh?"
"What kind?" she pressed. "Local news? National news? Sports journalist? Entertainment reporter? Do you blog? Write for a paper? Present a talk show? Contribute to the Wall Street Journal?"
Killian chuckled a little awkwardly and then brought his hand up to rub at the back of his neck. He'd always prided himself on how well he'd done in his chosen profession. A lot of people assumed it was his family connections and money that had gotten him to where he was, but Killian knew the truth. He knew just how hard he'd had to work to prove himself, and just how long that process had taken. He was proud of what he'd achieved so far – but he also knew that he'd made a fair few enemies along the way. He always tried his hardest to remain as impartial as he could, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that his own beliefs had probably shaped his coverage in some way, even if they were only minor ways, and those beliefs had caused more than a few problems when it had come to meeting new people in the past. He didn't want to lie to Emma about what he did, but he also didn't want her views of him to be skewed so soon into their friendship – so he decided to employ her own tactic and opted for a fairly vague answer.
"It's uh… it's nothing. Just politics, you know." He shrugged his shoulders and tried to pull that face everyone else gave him when he mentioned politics in a statement.
From the tight smile she offered him, Killian knew she hadn't really brought his answer, but unlike everyone else in his life, she didn't push him for more. Instead, Emma seemed perfectly content to wait until he felt confident enough opening up to her.
"It's okay," she said, by way of an explanation, "You can have your secrets. You don't need to be ashamed of that. I'm not expecting you to tell me everything about yourself during this trip because I sure as hell don't plan to tell you everything about me. We've only just met. It's natural to want to hold a little of ourselves back until we know each other better."
Killian nodded his agreement and offered her a grateful smile before he turned his attention back to the path ahead of them, which suddenly seemed darker and narrower than it had been before.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" he asked, hanging back slightly to allow her to move ahead of him.
"Yep. Carlos told me all about it days ago and I've been itching for a chance to properly explore it ever since. He says it's a difficult climb but the view is well worth the effort."
"Who's Carlos?"
"The guy who's been taking your OJ order every morning," Emma giggled, before pushing ahead with her hike.
For the next twenty minutes or so, Emma and Killian remained mostly silent as they navigated the tight, overgrown path that seemed to be climbing higher and higher with every step they took. Killian liked to think of himself as a relatively healthy guy. He took good care of himself. Okay, maybe he didn't eat as well as he could have, (who the hell eats spinach anyway?) but he worked out three times a week at the gym in his building and he often walked or biked to work. However, that morning, as he picked his way carefully up the side of a mountain through a dense forest, he had never felt so out of shape.
"Are you keeping up down there?" Emma called back over her shoulder.
Killian shot her a dirty look instead of trying to force out words around his desperate gasps for breath.
"It's not much further, old man," she taunted, before easily side-stepping a large root sticking out of the ground that he almost tripped over twenty seconds later.
"Old man," he grumbled, although he wasn't entirely sure she could hear him. "I'll show you old man." He reached up to push his sweat-drenched hair away from his forehead and then gave himself a mental shove, forcing himself to place one foot in front of the other to keep on climbing.
Killian was sure they'd been walking for hours when the trees around them began to break and more light started spilling through the canopy above them. The promise of open skies seemed to serve as fuel for Emma, and she pushed ahead much faster than she had before, eventually stepping out of the forest and onto a small cliff ledge.
For a moment, she stood with her hands on her bare knees, almost bent in half as she waited for her breathing to even out. Then, she turned around to call back, "Hurry up, Killian. By the time you make it up here, you'll be old and grey. Well, older and greyer."
Killian grumbled a few expletives under his breath and she chuckled before turning back around to take in the view.
Carlos had been right. While the climb wasn't exactly an easy one, it had definitely been worth making. The moment he emerged onto the ledge beside her, Killian could feel his mind clearing of all the fog and cobwebs that had obscured it before. Emma didn't appear to have noticed him. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be humming some sort of tune to herself. Killian took a step closer to her so that he could hear it better and tried to place the music. It took him a couple of repetitions to realize that he'd never heard it before.
"That's beautiful," he eventually said, startling her slightly as he did.
"Yeah, it is," Emma agreed, opening her eyes to stare down at the sprawling forestry spread out below them.
"I wasn't talking about the scenery," Killian chuckled, "Although, that's pretty impressive too," he tacked on, taking another step closer to Emma so that he could peer out over the edge of the cliff.
For a couple of minutes, the two of them stood in silence, just allowing themselves to soak up the breathtaking scenery and stillness of the morning. When Emma took a step forward and then dropped to her knees, Killian's hand shot out, making as if to grab hold of her. The young woman hadn't fallen, however, she had simply decided to perch herself close to the edge of the cliff.
"Lighten up," she teased, "I know how gravity works. I'm not planning to get too close."
"Sorry. I just uh… I just wanted to be sure," he explained. Killian then decided to busy himself with pulling out a bottle of water to sip from before he searched inside of his bag for his camera. "So um… what was the song?" he eventually asked.
"Huh?"
"The song," he repeated. "The one you were humming. I've never heard it before."
"No, you wouldn't have," she replied distractedly, but she didn't elaborate any further either.
Instead of pushing her for answers, Killian decided to use his time photographing the incredible scenery around them. While photojournalism wasn't exactly his area of specialty, Killian's very first internship had taught him the benefit of always carrying a camera with him. Emma had pulled out her notepad and was busy scribbling something in it as he moved carefully around the ledge, snapping pictures from every angle of everything he found interesting. He knew his mother would want to see them all when he returned home, and he had a feeling that one or two of them would eventually end up making it onto the wall of travel in his office. When he was finally finished, Killian dropped the camera to hang loosely around his neck and then turned to find Emma peering up at him from her spot on the floor.
"What?" he asked, frowning down at her in confusion.
"Nothing," she chuckled. "You just uh… you looked very confident doing that. I'm guessing you're good behind a camera."
Killian shrugged his shoulders as his cheeks pinked with embarrassment. "I've gotten better over the years but I'm not a professional by any definition of the word. I prefer being in front of the camera than behind it."
Emma's eyebrows shot up with surprise and Killian cursed himself for giving away far too much information so early in the day.
"Interesting," was all she said, before she pushed herself up to her feet and then turned to stand with her back facing the edge of the cliff. "Well, either way, you're probably better behind a camera than I am so –" she held her arms out wide in invitation, "– take my picture?"
Killian chuckled a little before reaching out to take hold of one of her hands.
"Okay," he agreed, "But not so close to the edge, please? You'll give an old man a heart attack."
Emma's laugh rang out beautifully just as Killian hit capture on his camera for his very first portrait of the stunning English woman he was certain he would never forget.
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