Katie's Cafe

33

"Rise and shine, Sara," I hear him whisper when my eyes are still closed, and also feel his fingers delicately running through my hair in an effort to wake me up.

"Nooooo, it's still too early," I groan quietly against the pillow and bury my face into it.

"Breakfast is only being served for another half hour," he says quietly in my ear like he's trying to seduce me with the thought of food.

"Fine, I'm up," I jump out of bed, even faster than he expected.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfast was good, but I could clearly tell that Tom preferred my cooked breakfast to the one they serve here. For starters, my portions are enough to fill you, whereas this one wasn't.

"Happy Birthday Tom," I smile as we finish up breakfast with a coffee.

"Forty already," he says matter-of-factly and sighs.

"What's so wrong with turning forty?"

"I'm not quite where I imagined I'd be at this point in my life," he looks so sad when he says that.

"Meaning?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter".

"What happened to the whole honesty thing we've got going? It goes both ways you know?"

"It's just that I always imagined that I'd have children of my own by now".

When I think about what he's saying it makes complete sense. He'd already confided in me that he was trying for a baby with his wife before they found out she was sick.

"You're not too old to still have kids, Tom".

"I suppose that's true. What about you, do ever think about having children of you're own one day?" he asks, and I can see a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"With the right man I suppose I would".

I give him a reassuring smile to let him know that I'm serious about us and our future together. In truth, I'd never envisioned myself as the maternal type until I had to take responsibility for Hannah.

Even then, it was more of a sisterly bond than a motherly love, but it did make me more open to the idea of having kids some day. Every time a customer brings a baby into the cafe I feel broody.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd eventually meet a man like Tom after what happened all those years ago. I never thought I deserved it.

These days, I was more than willing to hope and dream of a future with him in it, because he's in my heart whether I wanted him there or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After getting ready, I meet him in the reception area downstairs later that day. I twirl and show off the pretty blue dress I'd bought myself just before we came here.

"Wow".

"Do you like it?"

"You look beautiful".

"Thank you, kind sir. You don't look half bad yourself".

"I'm glad you approve. We're booked in for dinner at the restaurant next door in ten minutes".

It's a nice, family run Italian place that's really busy. We're seated almost straight away at a booth in the corner that's gives us plenty of privacy.

The food here is absolutely delicious, and I notice that Tom has chosen not to have any wine with his meal tonight. I'm almost positive he's done that entirely for my benefit, but I'm grateful all the same.