Our story thus far: Charles Crafton, a confirmed bachelor, is late for work one day and has a wreck in front of his house. He and the woman in the other vehicle are in his kitchen waiting for the police to arrive.
Charles opened the door to his house, and found himself quite embarrassed at how untidy his home was; found himself even more so when he had to clear a space for her to sit.
Alina made herself comfortable, and he made coffee while calling the police and a tow truck. He handed Alina one of his favorite mugs. She wrapped her hands around it, as if trying to find a measure of comfort in its warmth.
She smiled, said, "This is rather good coffee."
As he didn't know what to say, he pointed out the phone and watched her as she called her boss and explained about the wreck.
He was rather pleased with what he saw; Alina was attractive; red hair laced with gold highlights framed a pretty face, and slim hands looked carefully manicured.
"No, no, I'm fine," he heard her insisting. "The car is rather crumpled and lodged quite nicely in Mr. Crafton's car, but I am completely unharmed!"
There was a knock at the door. When he opened it he found a mechanic and a policeman.
He managed to look chagrined as they both tried to talk at once.
"I've moved the cars up..."
"I'll need to take a report..."
He motioned them in, waited until Alina was finished with her phone conversation before he spoke.
"I'm Charles Crafton, and this is Alina Stanton," he said.
The mechanic looked like he was about to speak, but the policeman beat him to it.
"I'm Sergeant Willoby, and I'll need to find out the cause of the accident so I can make a report. I've talked to several people hanging around the cars, but none of them seem to know what happened."
The mechanic looked like he was about to burst, so Willoby said impatiently, "What?"
"I'm sorry, Sir," he said, "It's just that I've got another call and I gotta get these two into the shop, and it's tying up two trucks and all, so could I get going?"
The Sergeant looked exasperated, but nodded yes and waited while the mechanic collected keys and information from each of them.
He finally left with a greasy nod, and the Sergeant said, "To continue!"
Charles and Alina looked at each other, and Alina said, "Sir? Well, I'm afraid it may be my fault; I found myself late to work and I think I may have been going a little too fast around the curve, and I didn't see Mr. Crafton until I plowed right into him..." Her voice trailed off.
Charles added, "I feel it was my fault. I, too, found myself late for work and may have been going a wee bit fast out of the drive."
The Sergeant wrote it all down, then said sternly: "I could ticket you both, but instead I'll just write it down as a 'No Fault' and you can fight it out with your insurance companies. Good day."
