The bus seemed to fly in slow motion towards her. She had only wanted to get a cup of coffee from the shop across the street. Once she stepped away from the curb the bus flashed its lights at her and then blew its horn.

BEEEP!! It resounded in the air shocking her as she turned right to look at it. She couldn't move even though her mind was telling her to move backwards her legs were frozen. She was rooted to the spot.

She stared open mouthed at the bus as if hoping it would stop before it hit her.

She felt someone grab her arm and pull her backwards.

She stumbled into them onto the pavement.

The bus carried on past still blasting its horn and the driver glared at her angrily, she wondered what would have happened if the bus driver just ran her over. She imagined he would have been happy about it and probably thought she deserved it.

She looked at her saviour and her mouth fell open in surprise.

Mark?! It was Mark. What the hell was he doing here.

"Mark?!" She said out loud.

"What's wrong with you? You could have been killed. BY A BUS!" He stressed the last words to her but she didn't hear them.

"What? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"What do mean what am I doing here? What are you doing here?" He answered her question with more questions. She stared at him some more. His light blond hair ruffled in the breeze and his dark blue eyes frowned at her. She blinked a couple of times not sure what to say or do. She could only look at him.

She couldn't think. Mark had always had that effect on her. Whenever she was around him it was like she had been struck dumb. She opened and closed her mouth and imagined this is what a fish must feel like. As they stood there in silence and stared at one another Mark decided to say something.

"Well it doesn't matter. Next time look where you're going. Are you trying to get yourself killed?" She shook her head no.

"Good. Well what were you doing?"

"I was uh going to get some coffee from that shop over there." She pointed to the small coffee shop across the road.

"Ah but still don't kill yourself over a cup of coffee. That would be the worst head line ever. Woman run over by a bus while getting a coffee." She nodded not trusting her self to speak.

"The light's green now so we can cross." He nodded towards the shop. "Come on let's get you some coffee. I think you need it now." He grabbed her arm again and puller her across the road.

Mark somehow ended up joining her in the coffee shop.

They sat together in the corner of the room on plush sofas. A lady came to take their order.

"Just a coffee, milk and sugar please." Mark said.

"Uh a um coffee latte with milk, thanks." She left them to themselves.

"So Mark, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here on business."

"Oh are you still working at The Recorder?"

"No I left last year. I'm at the Evening Standard now."

"Wow, congratulations. Well done. I knew you wanted to get a job there, how is it going?"

"Thanks! I'm enjoying it so much. I get so many more articles to write and of course I get to go and do all the research myself. I'm actually on a case right now." He seemed so excited about it.

"Anything you can tell me about?"

"No sorry, it's top secret and super exclusive. You'll have to read my article this Friday."

"Oh congratulations. Again. Sounds so exciting!" She smiled at him. He had a gleam in his eye and was smiling at her. She remembered when they worked at The Recorder he never got this excited about any of the articles they had been asked to write about. Most of their articles had been about someone winning the lottery, or someone finding a cat stuck in a drain pipe. They even had to cover a story where the police were called to break up a house party that had gotten a bit too rowdy.

"Working for The Evening Standard is wonderful. I get to write about aeroplane crashes, politicians, celebrities, charity events and so many more things. It also allows me to go to different events. I love it." He beamed at her. He was not going to stop smiling any time soon. She smiled back at him. It was infectious.

"Here are your coffees." The lady returned with two steaming mugs and put them on to table.

"Thanks." She said, the lady smiled and left. She watched Mark add sugar to his coffee and then stir it with the silver spoon. She wrapped her cold hands around her own mug to warm them up.

"What about you? How's your job going?" She felt like cringing but kept a straight face. As much as The Recorder bored her to tears, at least she had been respected there and knew that she was always going to be picked first to cover any story. She was now working at The Guardian and mostly wrote a lot of fashion articles. It has seemed liked such a huge step up from her previous job when she left a two years ago, but know she felt pigeon holed and less enthusiastic about it.

"It's going ok." She said as casually as she could. He looked at her. She didn't return the look and stared at her cup of coffee instead.

"Just ok?" He questioned. She smiled.

"It's great." She tried again. "No I'm really enjoying it. I get to visit all the different fashion shows and talk to models and designers and find out what's in each week. You would not believe how quickly fashion changes, I mean one week everyone is wearing these kitten heel shoes, the next it's all about boots, and then suddenly everyone is wearing something that's Minion related! Honestly fashion changes so quickly it makes my head spin!" She laughed out loud hoping it didn't sound too fake.

Mark nodded and sipped his coffee. He had a more poker face than she did; she wasn't sure what he was thinking as she spoke. She sipped her own coffee and waited.