A Surprise ⇢ Callum Ilott

TWENTYNINE

It was the next morning when Callum was having breakfast at the hotel. The morning started off with some trouble with waking up to being almost late for breakfast. Callum didn't sleep well last night, he couldn't stop thinking about Catherine, about the kiss. He had to stop thinking about that moment, he needed to focus on himself. There was so much confusion on their status, like were they friends, or more than friends, were they even friends?

Catherine entered the restaurant, and Callum's eyes were plastered on her. She looked so beautiful, so effortlessly beautiful. The blue dress she was wearing, hugged her body perfectly. Callum quickly looked away when his eyes met Catherine's. He slowly continued eating.

"Good morning," Catherine greeted Callum.

He looked up, and the corners of his mouth curled up. "Hey, how are you?"

She nodded. "I'm fine, thanks. How about you?" She returned the question.

Callum was scanning Catherine's face when she was standing at the end of the table he was sitting at; her eyes looked small, meaning she probably wasn't awake for a long time or was just tired. "I'm alright," he answered the question.

"I..." Catherine didn't know what to say. "I have your hoodie. Thank you for letting me borrow it," she said and opened her bag.

"No problem," Callum smiled. He saw Catherine having difficulties opening her bag, particularly her right arm, which was obvious. "Thanks," he said when Catherine gave him his hoodie back.

A smile grew on her face. "I will see you around. Have a nice day," she said and closed her bag.

"You too, Catherine," he said. He had to stop himself from getting up and hug and kiss her. Callum tightened his jaw and watched her walking away from him.

Callum took a deep breath and grabbed his phone. He needed a distraction. When he had checked some stories and posts on Instagram, he saw he had a few DMs from friends. The first one was from Robert, who send him the story of Gordon Ramsey: it was a picture of a dish with Catherine tagged in it. Callum rose his eyebrows, did Gordon Ramsey finally discover Catherine's talent? Callum opened another chat with Marcus, who had shared a story from Catherine's account and send the text: 'You have competition, I'm afraid... woman's with Ramsey in a kitchen at 4 o'clock in the morning eating the best dishes' with it.

It made Callum curious, so he watched her stories. For a moment he forgot Catherine could see he watched her stories, but he didn't care about it anymore. It was a photo series of ten pictures; the making of the dishes. The last story was a closeup selfie of Catherine, having an exciting look in her face and eating something.

A smile curved on Callum's face, Catherine looked genuinely happy. It made Callum fascinated to see that Catherine was delighted because her wish came true; getting recognised by Gordon Ramsey. But why they were eating dishes at 4 o'clock in the morning, was still a question to him. Now it made sense why Catherine looked tired.

"What had Catherine to say?" Mick curiously asked when he took a seat across from Callum at the table with breakfast.

"Hmm, what?"

Mick chuckled. "I saw you talking to her."

"Oh," Callum muttered. "Yeah, I saw her yesterday, and she came to see me."

"Uhu." Mick nodded and looked expectantly. "And? What did you do?"

"We didn't do much, we didn't talk a lot, we just sat outside and... Nothing special." The kiss? It was special. Callum doubted on sharing it.

Mick took a sip from his cup of coffee. "Were you at the kitchen thing of Catherine and Gordon Ramsey as well? I'm just wondering why Catherine was with Gordon Ramsey in the middle of the night, and eating his dishes," he questioned.