More than two decades passed, and it was just another morning. On a windy Monday morning, Oddey was up in the attic looking for an old art book by the dusty shelf. "Where is it?" she grunted. "I know it's somewhere in here. I knew I should've taken it the moment I saw it."

But then, her mother, Eve, saw the ladder to get to the attic was down by the corridor. "Odette Empirio, are you up there again?" she called out to her.

"Yeah..."

"Get out of there now. It's too dusty in there."

"I'll be fine," Oddey assured. "I just need to find that Romantic Art book."

"You might get an asthma attack. Get down right now," her mother demanded.

"In a minute." The young lady continued to find her book. Eventually, she found it. "There it is."

Later, Oddey was in the kitchen, sitting by the counter to have her break. She wiped the dust off on the cover with a wet tissue. "Don't ever go up there again," Eva spoke to her in a firm tone.

"Mom, I'm fine," Oddey assured her. "Besides, I need it."

"What is it anyway?"

"Romanticism and Art book. It's in the syllabus. This was Dad's when he was in college."

"I could've gotten that for you," Eva told her.

Oddey acted cheeky, "Well, I have it now," she said.

Her mother just laughed it off, then placed a warm chocolate and toast on the table. "Here's your breakfast."

"Thanks, mom."

After breakfast, the college student walked out of her family home. The weather was so chilly that people needed to wear warm clothes. Oddey felt the cold wind gust on her. Eventually, it was getting less breezy, so she took out the book from her bag and began reading the art book while walking.

When she turned a page, there was a thin envelope and it seemed old because of the brownish color the edges were black, and there was a name written on it at the back 'Marie' with thick black ink, a postal stamp, and an address she had.

Oddey stopped walking and got curious. She was about to check it out, but the wind got stronger, so the paper blew away. "Oh no," she gasped, then started chasing it.

----

On the other side of the street, Gage was there and talking to his friend on the phone. He was leaving a voicemail since there was no answer. "Hey! Courtney, I'm almost there in Patty Street. Where are you?" he asked. "Call me back."

All of a sudden, the wind blew the envelope through the pathway, then it stopped when it got to Gage's eye level, and it caught his attention and then just like that.

The wind stopped, so he watched the envelope fall on the ground in front of his shoes. "What's this?" He got curious, so he picked it up, turned it around, and then read 'Marie' at the back.

Unfortunately, it flew off his hands. It was odd, yet he shrugged it off and continued to cross the road.

Once Gage got to the spot where he was supposed to meet his friend, he went to a convenience store to buy something to eat while waiting.

He entered the store and picked what sandwich to eat. However, as he was choosing between a tuna or an egg salad sandwich, he could see a girl appear in the distance through the glass window wall. It was Oddey.

Gage didn't know her, and he had never taken a fancy to any girl in the past, but seeing wavy medium dark hair and red plump lips petite girl felt different.

Anyhow, the young man didn't put too much thought about her after staring at her for ten seconds, and finally chose which sandwich he was going to buy, then went to the cashier after getting a bottled coffee drink.

----

Meanwhile, Oddey was so focused on that letter that she wasn't even aware that someone else was there watching her from the nearby convenience store.

Her head was wandering around to find that letter, and then she looked at the tree next to the small bridge. She found it. However, it was stuck on the tree crown and out of her reach.

Oddey had to get that letter no matter what. She thought of going up the bridge side since it was three and a half feet tall. So she pulled herself up, then one knee after the other on the platform.

There was a strong water stream under the bridge. She immediately looked up so she wouldn't think about falling off and being washed to her death. After shaking those awful thoughts in her head, she grabbed the tree trunk to hold onto something and slowly stood up and kept looking up nervously. She used the other hand to get the letter at the side of the tree crown.

It was so hard to reach that she did something crucial. Oddey slid her left foot a little to get a better distance. She stretched her arm a little more, yet she had to be more careful. The metatarsal part of her shoe helped her hold onto the platform.

After that, she had a great chance of getting the envelope. Her two fingers were about to make a tweezer so she could get the tip. Eventually, she got it and quickly had to put it in her pocket before anyone could see her in her state like a police perhaps.

Although, it was not a police officer. Gage got out of the convenience store with a paper bag in his hand. He was about to call his friend again until he caught Oddey looking rather stuck. Thinking that she was in peril, he dropped the bag and instinctively rushed to save her. "Hey! Look out!" he yelled at her.

"What?" Oddey was startled. But before she could react, she lost her focus, and her foot slipped and lost its grip on the branch. She was about to fall off the bridge as her body swayed towards the side of the stream.

Gage quickly grabbed her left elbow and her waist and pulled the girl away so that her body swayed on her back, yet her sleeve got a tear from the rough wood of the tree. "It's okay, I got you," he told her.

Oddey realized that she did not have a hard fall on the ground. She slowly opened her and saw an attractive young stranger with beautiful olive-green eyes looking back at her as her eyes got wide. "Uhmm..." she uttered, still feeling in disbelief that she nearly fell off a bridge. Aware that she was in a guy's arms, she got off from him.

Gage saw she was shaking. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

The young lady choked and couldn't voice out her response, so then she nodded. Oddey took a deep breath and then opened her mouth, "Ahh... yeah, I am... Now," she stuttered, still feeling in utter shock from almost falling to her death and talking to an attractive guy.

"Are you sure?" Gage asked again because from what he was seeing, she looked like she saw a ghost. "Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, I mean no, I'm fine."

"Okay, just relax for a second. Just take a deep, slow breath."

Oddey nodded at him again, then she took a deep breath because her heart was skipping a beat just looking at him and his gentle smile. She leaned on the bridge side and then put her hand on her chest. After that, she looked down and saw that she was holding the envelope. "Yes, I got it," she exclaimed with a sigh of relief. "Now, I'm okay."

Gage was also looking at it, and once he got better a glimpse, he did recognize that it was the envelope that he found a little while ago. "Wait," he asked. Oddey paused her contentment and looked at him. "That's yours?"

"Uhm... Yeah," Oddey lied since it wasn't actually hers, but she did find it.

"So is that why you got up there? Because of that letter?"

Oddey suddenly felt embarrassed. "I know, it's crazy."

"It must be a very important letter to do what you just did," Gage said.

"Yeah, I forgot to thank you for saving me just now."

"No problem."

"I'm sorry for all the trouble."

"It's okay, I wasn't the one who almost fell off a bridge," Gage chuckled with that effortlessly handsome grin.

Suddenly, Oddeys's phone vibrated, so she took out her phone and looked at it. "Oh gosh, I have to go, I have less than fifteen minutes to get to the bus," she whined, then took her bag that she left on the side and began to leave. "Bye, and thanks again."

"No problem. Be careful next time."

As for Gage, he watched her leave, and he kind of felt indifferent, yet he was happy to help even if it was just with anyone. Afterward, he walked back to the convenience store and saw the mess he made when he threw the paper bag to save Oddey.

Fortunately, nothing got dirty, so he picked them from the ground and put them in his bag instead. Not long after, his friend, Courtney, arrived, standing in front of the store. "Hey, what was that about?" she said.

Gage darted to her, "Finally, you came," he responded. "What took you so long? I've been trying to call you on my way here."

"Sorry, I woke up late this morning, and I was running when I got your voicemail. I don't know why I had to get back home for the weekends."

"Because it was your younger brother's birthday, and you promised him that you'd come. Look, it's fine. At least you got here in time."

"Oh, right. By the way, who were you talking to?"

"Huh?" Gage reacted, looking confused at her.

"That girl you were talking to about a minute ago." Courtney was referring to Oddey since she saw them together.

"Oh! Her. I'll explain later so anyway, let's go so we won't be late. We need to finish our history project today."

"Let's just do half of the work done for today. I still have a lot to do later. Thanks to my family, I wasn't able to finish my report," Courtney responded, then started walking.