The lingering light was obliterated by the rapidly falling night. The once salmon and purple sky transformed into a vast expanse of jet-black that engulfed the town. A canopy of luminous stars materialized amongst the ocean of blackness. Some of them were dull, merely flickering into existence every now and then, but there was an adequate amount of shimmering stars to illuminate the dark. The light from the stars fell onto the girl’s eyes who were sitting across from Mark, and they sparkled beautifully. Her eyes were alluring, rendering him paradise.

Her appearance was appealing, his heart was thumping like a horse’s hoofs on a dirt road, it was continuous. She had her light brown hair pinned up messily with a small butterfly clip, and she was wearing a pair of 1-carat diamond studs. A red dress wrapped her body, exposing a plentiful amount of her well endowed chest and her perfect curvature. Red had always been his favorite color, which was why he was also wearing a red shirt. Her exposed legs were breathtaking, they were pale and well-shaped. He found himself staring at those legs for a few minutes and he gulped nervously. He was not a ert, but he was a man after all. She almost had no makeup on, just a red lipstick on her lips.

Mark was too focused on Wendy that he did not realize that she was looking at him as well. He wore a simple suit with a red shirt which was tight, complementing his well-build torso. The suit was black…sharp-looking, and well-fitted. He wore exactly the sort of thing that a woman would pick out for her man to wear to a formal event; a dinner like this. That was something that made her a bit nervous. Still, it fit well, it made him look very handsome, and when he smiled, it was a little bit magical.

They both found themselves in a little world of theirs. But, it was not long; Wendy remembered that their dinner was on the round table, perfectly untouched. Waking up from her thoughts, she caught Mark looking at her with a slight smile on his lips.

“Aren’t you going to eat? It tastes better when it’s hot.” She had a twinkle in her eyes and a smile curled up on her perfect, plump lips. 

“You aren’t eating either,” he smirked, and that time Wendy knew that Mark realized she was looking at him as well.

“Well I-” Wendy was not able to finish her sentence when Mark cut her off.

“Let’s eat now, shall we?” Mark’s eyes gazed at hers, and they somehow gave her a sudden loud thump in her heart.

They both ate quietly, and no words were spoken. Mark ordered a steak for himself while Wendy had a salad with a soup for her dinner. He asked her if she wanted to order a more appetizing meal, but she just shook her head. He did not want to be pushy, so he just nodded along. 30 minutes of complete silence, Wendy’s voice broke through whatever interference it had been swamped in, and emerged deep and grainy in Mark’s right ear. 

“So, tell me about you,” she said, her face lighted up.

“What about me?” Mark stuttered nervously. “Uh, well I am Mark Tuan, 22 years old, unemployed as for now and-”

“Not that, silly,” Wendy laughed. “I want to know about you, your hobbies and passion, your life, who you used to be before you moved in here.”

“I don’t know where to start,” he sighed.

“Okay, then tell me what you did before as a job.” Wendy did not need to ask him in the first place but she did. She actually knew.

Mark took a deep breath before he looked into Wendy’s eyes. “It’s nothing so fancy. I did martial arts. I learnt new tricks, practiced everyday and earned money by performing on stage.”

Wendy furrowed her brows together, but then she put a sincere smile on her face. “You danced.”

“Yeah, I dan- wait I didn’t say that how did you-”

“I know I’ve seen you before. You look familiar and so I looked up on the Internet. You were pretty famous I would say. Sorry for not being able to see that beforehand!” she cackled, closing her left eye. It was her habit, closing one eye when laughing.

“I am not that ‘famous’,” Mark exclaimed in denial.

“Oh please, you were. There were a lot of articles on you. It’s just I barely go on the Internet, but I know I’ve seen you somewhere. Maybe you were on the newspaper? Besides, you had never performed here, in this town.”

“I- fine you win,” Mark said and his face broke into a broad smile. He gave her a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through Wendy’s body. His smile shined like the stars in the night sky, with no bright city lights to dim them. It was like the sun opened its eager light to shine about him, only brightening his perfectly aligned teeth. He was stunning and Wendy knew she was falling.

“Say, I don’t know if this is a something personal to you, but who’s that girl that had always danced with you? I came across one video of you two dancing, you guys were amazing!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Oh- uh, well she was just my dance partner.” He smiled again, but this time it was different. His soft lips stretched into a smile but didn’t quite reach his dark eyes. They were lit with sadness, and the forced expression of the contrary on his mouth would have looked comical to Wendy if it didn’t make her heart feel heavy.

“She was something else, wasn’t she?”

"I don’t know what you meant.”

“Stop denying, Mark,” Wendy said, her face fell into a frown.

“You don’t know anything,” he said coldly, his eyes were looking down.

Silence came between them and made her blood as cold as the autumnal air that crept through an open window. It was quiet; there was no whispering noise or rustling. The silence was a poison to them that the shallowness of their conversation was laid bare.

“I’m sorry.”

***

The black BMW M4 cruised down the freeway, travelling north. Wendy was sitting in the front passenger seat with so much soft leather around her that she could barely hear the sound of the engine. Next to her, a young handsome man was gazing straight ahead, only half-aware of the world outside the claustrophobic comfort of the car. Wendy glanced at him, he had the most wonderful eyes – they were brown, mostly, but darken to black in correspondence to his mood. Little did she know that Mark had always admired her eyes as they sparkled without a help from the stars.

They did not exchange any words between them; it was too awkward for them since they just had a little misunderstanding back at the dining table. This was not a great start, Mark thought.

Mark was not a stubborn man; in fact he was the one who said sorry. He knew he should have not acted that way, and he should be wiser in his actions. But emotions and his heart got hold of him first before his mind did. Wendy told him that she did not feel bad about it and she was sorry instead. She told him she was not a person that should be intruding someone’s life, especially Mark, whom she just met.

Mark knew he had fallen for the girl who was seating next to him, and that he did not want to lose anyone anymore. He did not care if it would take him thousand years to be able to own that genuine heart of hers, as long as she would not disappear from his sight.

After some time, the night darkened and Mark noticed that the girl was fast asleep. She was tired. Not that she was tired of dining, but she was tired, of falling apart. He was sure that the young girl, about five months younger than him wanted nothing more than to lie down and be enveloped by the warmth of silence. Whether she wanted to rest permanently or not, he did not know. He never thought silence would be considered warm but there she was, sleeping soundly.

In her sleep, from deep inside her chest, through every cell of her body, the warmth suddenly welcomed her like an old friend. It felt strange; she had never felt like this for a long time. In fact, this warmth was different than the warmth she used to hold on to. To her surprise, the cold was slowly leaving her tired heart. All her life, everything she once loved or cared about always broke her, always managed to tear apart her soul bit by bit. But that time, she felt like everything in her universe was right for the first time.

She slowly opened her eyes, and she realized her head was now on someone’s shoulder, probably because she was dozing off that her head unconsciously tilted towards the driver seat. She then glanced at her right hand, and it was not alone. Mark’s hand was on hers, just resting there without a single move. Wendy felt like as if Mark knew that she was cold, though she was sure she was not shivering.

The sudden contact between them somehow did not make either of the two flinched. They both were comfortable, and of course Mark was the one who initiated it. Unaware of Wendy’s opened eyes, he focused on the road, with only his right hand on the steering wheel.

And Wendy chose to keep it that way, she loved the warmth and she did not want to lose it. She then closed her eyes again but this time she was not sleeping. She was just…indulging in that sweet life.

She asked herself. Was she falling?
Or was she…stepping into it?

But no, she would not.

***

Wendy felt a gentle push on her body, waking her up from her slumber. She actually slept. A gentleman’s voice made its way through the tunnel of her ears, and she opened her left eye. “We’re here,” the man said.

Wendy lifted her head up from Mark’s comforting shoulder and sat still for a moment. It took her some time to realize that she was already in front of her house. Suddenly, she thought of the possibility of drooling or worse, she could have drooled on Mark. Panicking, she touched her own lips, in case there was a trace of it. “Did I?!” she asked, frantically.

“Relax, Wendy. You didn’t drool at all,” he laughed. He then remembered how beautiful she was in her sleep. She looked fragile and Mark felt the need to protect her. Her porcelain skin was extremely pale, and Mark felt the coldness of her skin when he touched her. And that was why; he kept his hand rested on hers.

“Oh- thank you for telling me that,” she said, relieved that she did not do something embarrassing in her sleep in front of the young man.

She then looked at her watch, it was half past one. “It’s almost two in the morning?” she exclaimed worriedly.

“Yes, we were stuck in the traffic earlier…But we’re here, it is okay, let me walk with you to your door before I leave. You’re afraid of the dark, am I correct?” From the first time he walked Wendy home, he knew she never liked the dark. There was an obvious fear in her eyes every time dark greeted her.

“No- no, that’s not what I am worrying about.” She bit her lips before continuing. “You, you can’t drive home at this late hour.”

“It’s alright. I can drive home safely. No need to worry,” he smiled.

“No! I- I insist you to stay. It’s late and anything can happen.” Mark felt a strong grip on his hand, it was Wendy holding him tightly, while her eyes were looking straight onto him.

After being persuaded countless times, Mark finally nodded. Wendy was eager that he should stay for a night, and that time he knew Wendy was scared. Something was scaring her, perhaps that dark; cold night. But then, Wendy had always spent the night alone, after she was left behind by the man who broke her heart. He was tired anyways; he knew if he drives to home he would end up stopping and sleeping in the car. His house was quite far from Wendy’s as it is at the other side of the town.

“I hope you don’t mind,” He scratched his head, and bad thoughts controlled his mind. He hoped that this would not be a bad idea, and instead a chance for him to know her better.

“I won’t.”