The warning came too late. The rollerblader crashed into a young man walking along the park path. While he was unharmed, she went crashing to the ground. She did not sustain any serious bodily harm, but there was a possibility of serious damage to her pride and ego.

The man was fairly young, in his early twenties. Brown hair tumbled down to frame blue eyes. He wore a pair of jeans, a gray tee-shirt, and a pair of scuffed-up tennis shoes.

The girl had a good view of those tennis shoes. Or she would have if she had been looking at them. Her dark blue tee-shirt and black shorts contrasted with her blond hair and fair skin. Over her shoulder, a pair of shoes hung by their knotted laces. Dark brown eyes stared up at the man.

"You ok, kid?", the man asked.

"I'm twenty-two."

"Huh?" The man couldn't seem to fit this remark into the conversation.

"I'm twenty-two. That hardly qualifies me to be called 'kid'."

"Sorry."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"You gonna help me up or not?"

"Um, sure." He grabbed her hand, and with one heave, hauled her upright.

The girl studied him. "You know, you're really cute when I'm looking you in the eye."

He blushed. "A guy with modesty. I love it!" He blushed even harder.

"Oh, by the way, my name's Andreana (note to readers: it pronounced An-dree-ah-na) Willkins. My friends call me Ann. They say that Andreana takes to much time and energy."

"Robert Drake."

"Robert?"

He smiled. "My friends call me Bobby." Among other things, he added silently.

"I can see why. Robert is for the scholarly or economically distinguished."

"The what?"

"The very intellegent, or the very rich."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Sorry. Really though, Bobby suits you. I like it. Anyway, nice to meet you." She hadn't let go of his hand when he had pulled her up, so shaking hands was a simple task. Or it should have been. The movement caused Ann to loss her balance, and sent her falling forward. Bobby caught her in his arms, and held on as she tried to regain her balance. After a few seconds, she pulled away, embarrassed. When her feet threatened to betray her yet again, she settled for a death grip on his arm.

"Um, there's a bench about twenty feet to your left. Do you think you could get me over there?"

Laughing, he swung her up into his arms. "Hey, what are you doing? I do have legs you know"

Well, acually, yes, I do know that, and they're very nice ones. Like he'd say that out loud. "If you fell, I'd go right down with you. It's easier this way. It's not as if you weigh much." He sat her down on the bench.

"Thanks....I think."

"No problem. So, I take it those are pretty new." He pointed to her rollerblades.

"Yeah, First time I've used them. A friend gave them to me for my birthday. He's always trying to get me into one fad or another. I still have the pet rock he gave me when we were younger." She bent over to undo the laces of her blades. Bobby still caught her blushing.

"Oh, I don't know. I always viewed them as the perfect pets. You didn't have to feed them, or walk them, and you didn't have to clean up after them. Of course, they weren't exactly cuddly, but then neither was my ant farm."

She looked up at him in suprise. "You had an ant farm. I thought I was the only one who ever owned one of those silly things."

"Yeah, well, they all died on me."

Ann laughed. She was now working on tying her shoelaces. She sat up and knotted the laces of her blades together.

"You're something else, Bobby. the only question is, what?"

Bobby laughed. Suddenly, he glanced at his watch. He looked around the park, frowning. Ann noticed it.

"I take it you were waiting for someone."

"Yeah, I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch. But she had mentioned that she might not be able to make it."

"Girlfriend?"

"No, more like a business associate."

"Really, what do you do?"

"Ummm, it kinds of hard to explain. I guess you could call me the resident goof-off."

Ann grinned and tousled his hair. "I'd say it's an adept discription."

"What about you, what do you do?"

"I guess you'd call me a generic assistant. I work for a professor at the University. I'm part secertary, part cleaning lady, and part researcher. I make coffee, do minor repairs around the office, and kick out students. The varity is the biggest plus. The hours are kind of crazy, though."

Bobby nodded. He knew what that was like. A thought passed through his mind. "You know, since my lunch guest didn't show, how'd you like to take her place?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so."

"Cute, modest, implusive, and a great sense of humor to boot. How can I refuse?"

Bobby just smiled.