Breaking Free (Tom Holland) Book Two

BFB2 Chapter 10

Tom's alarm went off at the crack of dawn. I sleepily rolled over and opened my eyes. Tom shut his alarm off before getting up and heading into the bathroom to shower. Tessa snuggled closer to my legs. She felt warm and comforting. Unfortunately I couldn't savor her warmth for long. I apologized to her as I snuck out of bed. Throwing on my rode, I headed off to the kitchen to make breakfast.

"What's all this?" Tom asked. His hair was still wet from the shower. He wore no shirt which I was thankful for.

"Just a little something to celebrate your first day on the job," I replied.

Tom walked towards me and wrapped his arms around my waist. Giving me a light kiss on the lips he said, "I don't deserve you."

"You sure don't," I teased.

We sat down at the table and began to eat. "So what do you have planned for today?" Tom inquired in between mouthfuls of food.

"I think we're going to be doing some sight-seeing today."

"Sounds fun. Where about?"

I shrugged my shoulder. "I have no clue. Zac said he spent the entire night searching up every café in a hundred mile radius of his hotel so I guess we're going to be eating a lot of sweets today."

"You're going to save me some right?"

"I'll think about it."

After breakfast Tom finished getting dressed. I gave him a long hug as he prepared to walk out the door. I didn't want to let him go. He gave me one last kiss before saying, "I'll be back before you know it."

And just like that I was alone. I crawled back into bed and tried to go back to sleep. Tessa once again curled up next to my legs. This time I fully embraced her warmth and drifted off the sleep.

"Come on let's go!" Zac shouted later on that morning. He was standing in the middle of my living room tapping his foot impatiently. Aiden, on the other hand, was playing with Tessa on the floor without a care in the world. They had arrived an hour prior to pick me up but I had still been in bed. Zac had not been pleased.

"I'm almost done," I called back. I finished putting on my eyeliner and moved on to my eye shadow. "You can't rush greatness."

"Don't steal my lines! Besides, I am the only great thing here," Zac retorted.

"Hey!" Aiden said with mock offense.

Zac turned to his fiancé. "Don't even try to act like that's not true."

A few minutes later I emerged ready to hit the ground running. We all piled into the car and took off towards our first location. We ended up at an extremely cozy café nestled into a street corner. The interior had a rustic feel. Rows of twine on one of the walls had photographs pinned to them with clothespins. We ordered our food before finding a place to sit.

"So how are things going with you and Tom?" Zac asked.

I took a sip of my drink. "They're going well. We're pretty happy."

"Are they going well or are they going well?" If Zac's eyebrow raised any further it would have shot off his face.

I rolled my eyes. "We are not having this conversation. Especially not in the middle of a café."

"You mean you're not having this conversation," Zac told me. He turned to his fiancé and asked, "What do you think."

Aiden fixed his gaze on me. It felt weird. It was almost as if he was reading all of my deepest darkest thoughts. After a moment he looked away and shook his head, "No, I don't think they've gone that far."

My face turned bright red. "And what makes you say that?" I demanded.

Aiden flashed a devious smile. "Your reaction just now told me all that I needed to know."

Somehow my face got even redder. "What I don't understand is how you can sleep next to that all night and not be all over him," Zac commented.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Aiden protested.

Zac gave him a pat on the head. "You know exactly what it means." Aiden gave him a playful pout.

"Can we please change the subject?" I hissed.

"Nope." Zac replied. "You've at least seen each other naked right?"

"Zac!" I cried. I was pretty sure I resembled a tomato by now.

Aiden couldn't help laughing as well. "Zac leave her alone. She looks like she's about to pass out," he managed to get out between laughs.

Zac narrowed his eyes at me. For a moment I thought he was going to ignore his fiancé and continue to badger me. Luckily, he had mercy and decided to stop his interrogation. "Fine. I'll drop it for now. But remember, I never forget."

Our food arrived right on time. Plates of beautifully fluffy pancakes and crepes were placed in front of us. Strawberries and bananas were sprinkled around the pancakes and a thick coating of strawberry syrup blanketed it all. The crepes were covered in blueberries, raspberries, and a giant mound of whipped cream. Zac plucked one of the strawberries off of my plate and popped it in his mouth. "Hey!" I exclaimed, "you have your own."

"Yeah but yours taste better," he grinned.

We ended up visiting fifteen cafes. By the time we left the last one I was so full I felt like I was going to burst. I checked my phone like I did every time we left a place. I had tried to text Tom a few times during the day but he had only been able to reply once. At least I knew he was hard at work. I decided from then on that I wasn't going to worry about how Tom was doing. I didn't want to bother him when he was busy and I also didn't want him to feel like he needed to babysit me.

Zac did a wonderful job of keeping me distracted. Every day he barged into my house and dragged me off to whatever shenanigans he had planned for the day. It was only late at night when I lay awake in my bed that I couldn't help but think of the person I cared about the most.