The Cover Age, Chapter 19

When they first met, Clive and Georgia couldn’t possibly have imagined the fate in store for them, but...that’s the way it goes, isn’t it?

They had gone to see a movie, one of the X-Men, but separately, sitting in the dark theater completely oblivious to each other’s existence. They sat in different parts of the theater. Georgia was with some friends. She fell asleep at one point. This wasn’t really her kind of movie. She sucked on her soda and ate cookie dough bites, and that was the highlight for her, well, that and Hugh Jackman. By the time the credits rolled, she was more than ready for the movie to end.

Walking down the aisle, she listened to her friends chatter about it. Sounded as if everyone else had enjoyed it quite a lot. Par for the course. Sometimes Georgia had no idea how she ended up with these friends. Actually, they were coworkers. That was pretty much the explanation right there.

She literally ran into Clive after dropping her empty candy packet. Anyone else, if she had been anyone else, and it would’ve never happened, and her life would have turned out very differently. But she stooped to pick it back up, and that’s when Clive ran into her.

“Sorry,” Clive said. “Guess that’s two disasters today!”

Georgia almost didn’t respond. In truth she was pretty annoyed, but as much about the collision as the movie experience, and her friends, and her life in general...

“Yeah!” she said. “Tell me about it.”

“Uh, Clive,” he said.

“Clive, your glasses are falling apart,” she said.

“Keep meaning to replace them,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. “Listen, let’s do something. Uh, okay? I’m Georgia.”

Her friends shrugged. She didn’t care what they thought anyway. They clearly had bad taste in movies, anyway, right? They walked off. She and Clive strolled to the concession stand.

And that’s how things began.