Connie's Cafe/Book Shop

Chapter 12 Monday

Monday dawned bright and fresh. Connie had slept well and all her Sunday blues had evaporated with the night.

She started thinking of Dean, they hadn't actually set a date to meet up again.  He had been disappointed that they didn't meet up on Sunday and Connie hoped that hadn't put him off. She just wasn't ready to introduce him to 'her family' and to go over all the explanations, it was just too much, too soon. She hoped he would understand.

He said he was going to be busy this week at work and had to see how his week was going to pan out.  He would call her Monday or Tuesday, when he knew what his schedule was,  to arrange another date.  She hoped it would be today.

...........

As usual Tim was waiting for her at the door to the shop.

"Good morning, beautiful, and how was your weekend?" he asked cheekily with raised eyebrows.

"Actually I had a wonderful weekend thank-you, and by the way, I know all about it, Dean told me how you and the others had cornered him and almost forced him to come and meet me"

"Oh" Tim coloured slightly, "I'm sorry, did we overstep the mark?"

"Yes you did, big time" There was a little silence as Tim tried to read her face and decided if she was really angry or not.

"You do realise this could have ended in total disaster!" Connie confronted him at last, "I mean really, a blind date!"

"Oh but it worked out, didn't it?" Tim was a little hesitant, "I mean, you do like him and he really seemed to like you"

Connie smiled. "Yes, it did work out, so you are all lucky."

"So when's the next date?" asked Tim with a radiant smile

"Not sure" confessed Connie, "Hopefully he'll call either today or tomorrow, he said he was busy, don't know if he was brushing me off or telling me the truth. I think the truth, but time will tell. Now, enough of me and let's get to work." Thankfully just at the moment some customers arrived and the entire day was quite busy giving Connie little time to brood.

By the end of the day Dean had still not called. Connie told herself that he was busy and he would probably call her the following day although she was a little hurt, surely he could have found at least five minutes to call her.

..............

Tuesday dawned a little grey and dismal. Connie woke feeling a little sad, she had really though Dean would call, maybe she should call him. No, she decided, she would wait and let him call her.

During the morning she took delivery of a box of new books which took most of the morning to classify and put onto the shelves.

Amy, Betty and Pat spent all afternoon at the shop, Tim must have told them that Dean hadn't called because they didn't ask or mention anything.

............................

Wednesday was a good day at the shop. Connie was very pleased with everything, all the re modelling of the shop and the recent discounts seemed to be paying off. Everything was fine except the fact that Dean hadn't called.

Connie was a little upset with her friends, she wished they hadn't interfered, she had really liked Dean and now she had to face the rejection. It wasn't fair.

.................

At 6pm Connie bade goodbye to her friends and Tim, locked the shop door and made her way to her apartment, just as she was arriving Dean came running up carrying the most wonderful bouquet of flowers she had ever seen.

"Oh Connie, I've caught you" he said breathlessly, "I'm so sorry, when I got to the office I had to go on an urgent trip and I couldn't find your phone number anywhere.I don't know what I've done with it, I just couldn't find it and I didn't have any time to come round to the shop." He stopped for breath, "I'm so sorry, I've literally just returned, I still have my bag in the car, " he looked up into her eyes, "Do you forgive me?"

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