I left the Hub and all thoughts of my mission behind as I walked back to my apartment. I had a date to prepare for, with the most amazing woman I'd ever known. It was only a couple minutes walk, in pretty much a straight line. It was nice to live so centrally and directly between the two college buildings where I split my time. As I rounded the corner to enter the apartment complex, I passed the small on site newsagents, which stocked all of the emergency rations a horde of students might need. You can imagine these for yourself. I glanced at the newspaper rack standing forlornly outside of the shop.
"UCC Student Missing: Suspected Late Night Assault" read one headline, on the Examiner.
"UCC Probed Following Student Disappearance From Campus" exclaimed the Independent.
"Lock Up Your Daughters: Psycho Killer On The Prowl In UCC Campus?". Obviously one of the tabloid papers, this one.
I bought one of each paper, and hurried back to my apartment to scan the articles. I'd spent most of the morning with Captain Jack, and somehow I'd missed a story right in front of me. The gist of the articles revolved around the disappearance of Amanda Murray, a student of Commerce and a native Corkonian, 21. Amanda was last seen on CCTV walking through the college's medical studies campus at about 2am. The footage showed her walking off screen, passing through a blind spot between security cameras, and never emerging. She was not seen on any cameras after that moment, including the cameras watching the exits of the campus. Garda investigations found nothing significant on campus, nor in any of the buildings near her last known location. There were no eyewitnesses to the event. Leading speculation varied from sexual predators to an unfortunate accident involving a nearby bridge. I vowed to have a look at the site the following day, just in case there was more to this than first impressions would suggest.
I grabbed a quick shower, while I decided on what to wear. I wanted to appear well dressed and decidedly dapper, without being too formal. I settled on a green and purple checked shirt with veridian chinos, trendy Converse, and just a dash of hair gel for that "inch perfect scruffiness" look. I realize that using the word "trendy" in any context should preclude me from any lasting social contact, but it was my reasoning at the time. As I got prepared, my mind raced to the dark corners via the corridors of over analysis. My subconscious kept throwing up potential future details of a relationship with Susan. I had remarkably detailed images of a wedding, children, even sitting in a bank trying to arrange a mortgage! Meanwhile, my conscious mind was fixated on all of my myriad faults, and the thousands of ways I would mess up that night's date. Maybe I'd crack a tasteless joke? Maybe I'd make an arse of myself? Maybe Sue would just see right through me at the gibbering idiot she'd foolishly agreed to have dinner with?
I shook my head, in a pitiful attempt to physically clear my mind from such nonsense, destroying what little improvement I'd had on my hair in the process. Such a line of thought was unfortunately common too me. Some days I wondered if my head was simply broken, mostly I just assumed everyone was like this but they managed to hide it better. I'd managed to loose time due to my mental meandering, so I opted to grab a taxi into the city centre to save time.
In short order, I had arrived at the restaurant where I was to meet Susan. It was a beautiful place, with a 25-metre waterfall taking up one whole side of the outdoor seating area. A romantic spot recommended to me by Tony of all people, loathe as I was to trust his advice. I was still debating whether to wait outside or venture in to confirm our booking when I saw Susan approach.
"You look.. beautiful." I said, unable to think of anything more eloquent at the time. And she did. I've never seen a more stunning sight than Susan walking towards me with open arms. We embraced warmly before separating sand standing apart awkwardly. I took the opportunity to get a better look at her radiance. The smooth curves of her face, that smile that could melt glaciers, auburn hair cascading over her left shoulder. She was dressed in a colourful patterned knee length dress, with a red cardigan keeping out the chill of an October evening. Upon closer observation, I saw that the pattern of her dress was make up of a kaleidoscope of cartoon skulls.
I realized that we had been stood silent for an uncomfortably long while. Eager to break the silence, I blurted.
"I feel a bit overdressed now."
Then my brain caught up with my mouth, before running a mile ahead.
"Not to suggest you're under dressed of course. I mean, you're the correct level of dressed."
Damn. That sounded seedy.
"Of course, what I er... mean to..."
Oh God, how had I managed to ruin everything so quickly?!
Susan merely laughed softly, before replying.
"Arven. Relax. I'm nervous too, it's fine. Why don't we just head inside and find our table?"
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