The Fallen by Celia Thomson

lip,” she said, laughing. She reached over with a napkin and carefully wiped it off, dying not to drag it across his mouth too hard. She was doubly glad she had a manicure: it made the gesture twice as sexy. Denim dust under the nails would
not
have been attractive.
    He blushed, and his hand went through his hair, dislodging a lock that made a Superman-style curl in the middle of his forehead.
With glasses and a dye job, he’d make a very passable Clark Kent.
    He’s so…
cute! Chloe thought again, and it wasn’t for the last time that night. She wondered what the chances were that someone so much like her, so cute and so charming and so funny, could have randomly met her at work. If she had been in the back that day, or if Lania hadn’t been so mean to him, or… it never would have happened. And while mentioning Xavier and his subsequent sickness with him was not the sort of thing one did on a first date
(or ever, really),
Chloe could definitely see talking to Brian about other things. Her mom, her dad, Paul and Ame, her near-death experience…
    â€œWell, there they are,” Brian said, indicating the big yellow cats.
    Chloe put her hand out to the rail. She had always sort of dismissed lions before as the popular and inevitable members of any zoo tour. Common, even. But she looked at them more closely now. One female rose and walked languidly over to a water trough. Every step was casual; her shoulders moved up and down slowly. There was no mistaking the power in her muscles. Somehow Chloe wasn’t surprised when, after taking a gende lap and letting the droplets hang from the fur around her mouth, the lion turned and looked direcdy at her, golden eyes into her own hazel ones.
    â€œI never realized how beautiful they were before,” Chloe whispered, unable to turn away.
    Brian was saying something, spilling off factoidsabout the big cats, but she wasn’t listening. She could feel her dream again, like it was real.
    â€œâ€¦ know all about these guys. In the wild they eat like ten
pounds
of meat a day, sleep up to twenty
hours
a day, and can run up to fifty miles an hour”
    You need a desert,
Chloe thought at them. The lioness showed no sign of hearing or caring about her. She wandered back over to the other females and let herself down onto the ground, lazily and heavily. She bit at her paw.
    â€œUh, Chloe? Chloe?” Brian asked, waving his hand in front of her.
    â€œWhat? Sorry?”
    â€œI was trying to impress you with my
National Geographic-like
knowledge of the big cats.”
    â€œOh, sorry. Very clever.” Chloe turned for one last look at the lionesses. “These don’t just kill people, like Siegfried and Roy’s tiger?”
    Brian snorted. “Lions aren’t usually as dangerous as tigers. But they’re not house cats, either. They can get annoyed or pissed off—and even the friendly ones, like these, don’t know their own strength compared to humans. They can accidentally kill a zookeeper while trying to play with him.”
    â€œOh.” Chloe thought about that last fact, and Xavier.
    â€œWe should probably go; it closes in like ten minutes.”
    â€œOh yeah. Of course.” Chloe shook her head. “I have to get you your monkey!”
    Brian smiled shyly. “You don’t really have to…”
    â€œOf course I do, silly. This was a
great
idea for a date.” She grinned.
    â€œDate…?” he asked, surprised. Chloe hit him playfully on the shoulder. As the twilight deepened and they headed back to the main entrance, Chloe felt a surge of energy jolt through her, making her skip, babble inces-sandy, and touch Brian as she talked, without embarrassment or reserve. She even bought him an extra-big monkey, one with long arms and Velcro so he could wear it around his neck.
    They made it out just as the gates closed.
    â€œThis was great—thanks for suggesting it,” Chloe said