Backup Girl [Tom Hiddleston] {EBT book 2/4}

Departure

Kate answered the knock on the door, expecting Tom, and was surprised by room service bringing breakfast. Tom arrived a couple of minutes later. "Ooh breakfast," he grinned.

"I thought it was you, lucky I didn't answer the door naked!"

"Lucky for me, would have been a nice surprise for them though!"

"Haha. I'm almost ready, just need to put on some jewellery and zip up my bag," she said from the bathroom.

When Kate returned Tom had served her breakfast and poured juice. She didn't realise until then she was starving.

"Kate, have you been eating?" Tom asked seriously.

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"Eating enough?"

"I haven't been very hungry. And I've been busy."

"You've lost weight," he said gently. Kate immediately tensed, remembering yet another moment from what seemed like a previous life.

"Well I put a fair whack on when we started dating, and then I couldn't exercise," she said defensively. "I'm not starving myself, I just wasn't very hungry!"

Tom took her hand in his. "Kate, I just want you to look after yourself and be healthy. I'm not criticising you. You've lost a noticeable amount of weight since I saw you, and you've been stressed, and I was worried."

"I'm- No, you're right. I haven't been eating enough. If my mind wasn't 100% occupied I felt too nauseous. If I thought about the hearing, or how much I hurt you, how I missed you," she put down her fork. "Well generally most of it would come back up anyway. So I tried not to. Which meant I was also too busy to remember to eat."

Tom looked at her sadly. "Oh Kate. I wish I could just make it all go away. What you're doing is so brave, standing up to him."

"I'm not feeling very brave," she looked down at her lap. "Anyway, it's not for a few weeks so I'll worry about it then." It was then Tom could clearly see her coping mechanism - complete distraction and denial. He sighed.

"Eat up then, and we might have time for coffee before we go to the airport."

"Can we have coffee outside? I feel like I haven't been outside in months!"

"Absolutely. But only if you finish your breakfast," he chided, and Kate poked her tongue out at him.

Just down the street there was a cafe with seats outside. Although most sensible people were inside away from the bone-chilling Berlin winter, Kate relished the freezing air on her exposed face while she sipped her hot latte. Tom watched her in awe, such simple things had a profound effect on her mood. Kate's eyes were sparkling again and she again looked like the confident woman he had seen on stage last night. It was magical, and brought a smile to his face. Tom's phone rang and he retrieved it from his pocket, seeing Luke's number on the screen. "Good morning Luke," he said cheerfully. Tom looked at Kate with a mock scowl on his face as he listened. "Uh, I'm... well, it's like this... OK I'm in Berlin." Tom put his finger to his lips as a signal to Kate and put Luke on speaker. She almost giggled.

"What in god's name are you doing in Berlin? I thought you were filming in Toronto? Damn it Tom, you're supposed to tell me these things! I thought you were in a fucking ditch!"

"I'm really sorry Luke, it was a last minute decision. We were given the weekend off and I went to the airport to come home, but ended up in Berlin." he chuckled.

"What on earth-" Luke suddenly went quiet and Kate and Tom grinned at one another. "Hold on. You don't just go off to Germany by yourself. You went to see Kate, didn't you? After I specifically told you not to." Kate frowned.