An excerpt

There they were. Two figures leaping over that big gapping hole that drops into a shallow rocky lake. The grasses swayed their heads watching them fly through the air and they were crushed, finally, by both their pairs of shoes as they landed.

"Looks like you're an expert at this -- saving guys." The tall chap with the hat chirped.

"I have saved a couple of boys in the past." 

Cassie chuckled with a sly note.

"I didn't realize you were so limber." The chap replied.

"A woman's entitled to her own secrets, don't you think, Dr. Lao?"

"I supposed so." He lowered his gaze to his feet with a slight embarrassment as he started walking away from her.

It was such a lovely afternoon for a stroll in the fields. The breeze kissed their skins ever so gently as it waltzed with the dancing tall straws of grass, as they stood guard between these two strangers.

"So why did you do it?" The concerned physician queried.

She turned to him. Her hair glided so effervescently along with the breeze as it slithered around her. He looked at her move listlessly. The sight of her against that sun. That figure against such brilliance, much like a nymph frolicking along the grass. Her lips pouted so effortlessly towards him as the sound of the last syllable trailed in the air. "What? Swallow those pills?"

"Why did you try to kill yourself?"

"I didn't intend to kill myself. I just wanted to get high."

"Why?"

"Because I was unbearably sad and utterly inconsolable. Those pills have never failed me in the past."

There was a long pause. It may have lasted the whole sunset. It felt like it.

"Why were you sad?" He began to ask again.

She smiled for a heartbeat. Then, she threw a stare at the sun as it said farewell to that particular day. That day is gone now. Every little detail of it is nothing but a piece of memory, forever shifting and undulating in their memories, left with no certainty.

"I don't know."

"You know, the hospital wasn't the first place I saw you." He scrambled to pick something out of his brain to keep hers from thinking about the fateful past few days.

"Yes, I remember that party a year ago. You were there too."

"No, that wasn't it either."

"Really now?"

"I first saw you about seven years ago. I just arrived in Manila, at the airport." He said bitting his lips with regret.

Cassie smiled. His trepidation amused her. "Go on."

"You were there. I wasn't sure if you just arrived also. You looked lost. I wanted to ask you for directions. But then, I guessed you were lost too. So I figured it would be pointless to ask."

"I was confused. There's a difference." She joked.

"You looked sad. But you're smiling now. So is that a real smile now?"

"Soon."