New York Surprises (Tayvin - AU)

Part 3

TAYLOR POV

I had been given the shock of my life when I got to the radio station for the emergency meeting on Saturday. One of the station leads was leaving for another station and I had been promoted to lead researcher. I was on cloud 9 as I left the station and went to Karlie's. I was greeted by the most heavenly spell of fresh baked cookies when she opened the door.

"Hey Karlie!" I called down the hall as I came through the open front door. We had a system that when the other buzzed up we would just open the door so they could come in when they reached the floor.

"Hey Tay! Kids- your mom's here!" Karlie greeted me and then called into the living room as she passed the door and we made our way into the kitchen. "So what was the meeting about?"

"Well.... I got promoted! I'm now the lead researcher at the station!" I said, pretty sure my smile would split my face in half it was so big.

"OH MY GOD! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! We HAVE to go celebrate!" Karlie replied, jumping up and hugging me.

"What's going on?" Lia asked as they came into the kitchen.

"Mommy got a new job." I told them, holding my arms out to given them both a hug.

"Cool! Can we have cookies now?" She asked Karlie.

"Yeah, sure! They should have cooled down by now." Karlie replied.

"So what did you guys get up to today?" I asked them as they sat down and munched on their cookies.

"We went to the store with Karlie, and ran away from her to find the toys, and then Jay walked into a tall man and fell down, and then we went to the playground on the way home, and then we made cookies, and then we watched the rugrats movie...." Lia said, basically in one breath.

"Are you ok Jay?" I asked my quiet son who smiled back at me.

"He was really nice, mommy. And he knew aunt Karlie and he invited us to have dinner!" Jay told me, obviously impressed by this mystery man.

"He is one of the chefs at that new restaurant, 'Masons', where I was taking all the publicity shots last month. He offered me a meal on the house and invited the troublesome duo and their mom too." Karlie explained, probably getting the fact I was confused as to why a mystery man would be inviting my kids around for inner. "Actually.... that's perfect! We should go for dinner tonight to celebrate your promotion!"

"Please mommy? We want to see Mr Calvin again!" Jay asked me. I could never resist Jay, especially as he never asked for anything unlike his sister who always wanted this or that.

"You know what.... Dinner out sounds perfect! How about we go home and get changed and then meet you there at, say, 7pm?" I told Karlie.

We were soon en-route home, with a goody bag of cookies in hand, to get changed for dinner.

ADAM POV

After meeting Karlie and the kids at the store, I went home and experimented for a while. But my mind kept drifting back to those kids. They were so familiar somehow, and they were really sweet too.

Soon I had to head into work to get set up for dinner, so I had a welcome distraction. That is until I got a message from Karlie asking if she could take me up on the meal offer tonight. She said it would be two adults and two kids at 7pm. I couldn't say no, especially as I wanted to see the kids again and I assumed that the other adult would be their mother.

I went to the front of the restaurant and checked the book, pencilling in the booking onto one of our best tables, and letting Karlie know it was all sorted.

When 7pm rolled around I was incredibly busy, with 2 of our trainee chefs off work with some sort of illness, so wasn't able to go and greet Karlie and her table until a little later.

"Wow! I didn't know that chicken could taste that good!" I heard a voice exclaim as I walked towards the table. The voice brought back memories from years ago but I suppressed them as I didn't want to think about lost love when I was at work. I spotted the kids colouring in their little complimentary colouring books and waved at Karlie as I walked over.

"Well you can thank the chef in person, here is the one and only Chef Harris." Karlie said, pointing over her friend's shoulder towards me.

I smiled and got my hand ready to shake the mystery lady's hand. She turned around and my hand dropped at the same time as my jaw.

"Taylor?" I asked, not quite believing my eyes.

TAYLOR POV

When Karlie had said the restaurant had a fun and friendly atmosphere I didn't believe her, but seeing it myself made me change my mind. It was a very laid back place, very comfortable, especially with 2 children around.

I looked down the menu choosing a chicken and mixed vegetable mash dish for my main and a chocolate pecan pie for dessert. Karlie went for sea bass with red pepper coulis for main and a reversed profiterole for desert. The kids both chose Mediterranean pasta for their main and ice cream sundaes for dessert.

"Wow! I didn't know that chicken could taste that good!" I said, finishing my main. It was probably the best meal I had had in a while.

The kids were busy colouring in their little complimentary colouring books, having finished eating.

"Well you can thank the chef in person, here is the one and only Chef Harris." Karlie said, pointing over my shoulder.

I turned around and looked up slightly, only to be met with the one face that I had longed for over the past 6 years, and that I saw elements of everyday in the twins.

"Taylor?" Adam said, his whole face looking very shocked.

"Adam?" I said almost at the same time, thinking my eyes must be deceiving me.