That morning it had snowed in Berkeley, California.
The inhabitants of this college town, many of whom had never experienced snow, were skidding around as if the half-inch of white covering the ground had converted the entire town into the world’s most perilous skating rink.
Suddenly, her boots slid forward from under her and she went down hard on her bottom. She instinctively tried to break her fall with her right hand. When someone begins to fall backwards, it takes real discipline to implement the logic that your butt is harder to break than your wrist.
When she hit the ground, her purse snapped open and its contents scattered around her. The snow kept them from going very far.
I rushed over to offer assistance. I must admit that if she’d been a burly man rather than a gorgeous young woman, I probably would have just kept on walking, chuckling discreetly.
Still, once I was sure she was unhurt, I had to stifle a laugh. She’d gone down with a comical thud.
She looked up at my hands, outstretched to help her. Through her disheveled hair, I saw large sea-green eyes and the kind of nose that keeps a woman desirable throughout all stages of her life. Her skin was flawless, a shade of coffee, heavy on the cream.
I waited. Beautiful woman aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be. Often, they can be as much of a pain in the ass as falling hard on a slippery sidewalk.
However, I immediately knew that she had much more than her looks. She exuded a wonderful mixture of determination and mild humiliation. While fully appreciating the awkwardness of her situation, she was determined to overcome it with dignity.