Her hand flew out in front of her and ended up landing on his chest, and she wavered a little in his hold before steadying, half fallen forward as she looked down at her feet as if they were to blame for her sudden lack of balance. Her head tilted up when he asked her if she was okay and Patty stared at Ray with humiliation burning in her face, because the only thing worse than tripping and falling in front of someone like Ray Palmer was being caught by Ray Palmer while tripping and falling and noticing how he was even more attractive this close than he was in interviews on television. The entire situation was only somewhat mortifying.
"I'm okay! I'm okay. I'm sorry," she hurried, pushing on his chest a little to help herself upright, and when Patty stood she turned so she would actually be facing the direction that she was walking as she nervously pushed her hair out of her face and behind her ears. "Sorry, I just- I wasn't... looking..." which was obvious. He was a genius, she didn't have to spell that out for him. Her blush deepened, and when she looked at him she wore a shy, apologetic smile that didn't reach her shamed eyes. "I just get really excited, um... yeah so... I think what you do is pretty cool." She finished so lamely that Patty wanted to dig a hole in the sand and just bury herself in it, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she continued to walk with him in an effort to brush off the fact that she almost fell flat on her face. Literally, at least. Figuratively, she had done that pretty completely.
"I swear I was a good cop, I'm not usually that clumsy. ...When I'm paying attention, I mean, sometimes I am but not - it's not usually that bad - so do you remember why you volunteered for this?" It was a sudden change of subject but she needed that, purposefully keeping her eyes on the space in front of them so she wouldn't trip and so she wouldn't have to see him see her with a red face.