If It's Meant To Be

1 February 2012

Tommy stood with his back to the wall. He waited silently for her and turned as the sound of soft, padded shoes neared him. He had never done this before but it was too late to back out now.

"Hi." A soft voice said from behind him. He could tell she was nervous and it calmed him to know that she felt that way too.

"Hi." He said, stretching a broad smile across his face. His dark blonde hair caught the light as it fell over his brow.

She sucked in a tiny breath as he turned to take her in. Handsome she thought as she sublty looked him up and down.

Her dark brown eyes looked into his gold speckled ones.

Her cheeks flushed as he approached her and looped her arm through his.

"I'm Tommy." He said.

"Just Tommy?" She asked. He nodded in reply and waited expectantly for her to give her name. When she didn't, he went on to ask her.

"If you're going to be just Tommy, I'm going to be just Anna," she said in reply.

"Just Anna." He said thoughtfully, "Is that short for something?"

"Yes." She replied with no indication of revealing her full name.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"You're just going to have to find out for yourself." She said and bared a smile that could have stopped hearts or at the very least, Tommy's.

The smile on his face was wiped off at the sight of her beautiful one.

"What?" She asked slightly alarmed. She passed her reflection through one of the classroom windows they walked by and felt sudden shame. Carefully, she began to unloop her arm from around his and said, "I'm not what you expected, I know. You were probably hoping for someone who's... well, not me. I'll leave." She turned but he caught hold of her. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"Away." She whispered.

He came closer to her and put her face in his hands.

They were nearly the same height.

"Why would you want to do that?" He whispered back. They stood like that for several seconds, looking into each other's eyes. And he knew that in that moment, something in him had changed.

10 minutes later they stood in front of a coffee shop with large windows that displayed seated customers and cake stands. Anna's eyes surveyed the tiny shop until they landed on a particular cake. It was chocolate and layered; stack upon stack of dark brown cake covered in a chocolate ganache and topped with deep red strawberries. A slice had been cut out from it and Anna's tongue tingled as she stared at the deep brown, moist layers with chocolate icing between them.

Realising how odd it must be for her to be staring at the cake, Anna turned to look at Tommy who was not, for the first time since they met, looking back at her. He was looking at the cake. The very same cake Anna craved.

She smiled her heart stopping smile and tugged his arm. Quickly he looked away from the chocolate cake to her chocolate eyes.

"Let's get cake." She said

"Sure." he smiled back at her because it was the only thing he could do when her chocolate eyes were smiling at him.

They entered the shop arm in arm and headed for the counter, but something caught Tommy's eye and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"Nothing." He said and turned to smile at her. "Nothing at all." Tommy felt guilty. It wasn't nothing. It was the place he had taken his last girlfriend to and he had just spotted the booth they always shared.

"Great." Anna began to order her drink and as Tommy gave in his order, she wondered about the look on his face and why he had stared at the yellow booth in the corner like it was something he never wanted to see again. She even noticed how he strategically placed his hand on the small of her back and led her as far away from the yellow booth as the shop would allow. She then began to realise that his hand was on the small of her back and noticed how warm it was and how perfectly it fit.

She wondered if he wondered it too.

Once they were seated, they stayed in those seats for an hour untill something else caught Tommy's eye and made him stop right in the middle of his sentence.

Anna was still smiling at his last joke and waited patiently for him to continue, not realising that his eyes were no longer staring into hers.

"Um.. sorry. I have to go. Family emergency." Anna's heart dropped. This boy that she had spent an hour with talking about nothing and everything, had just stopped, murmured a few words and left. And the words he used where the worst of it all!

No one texted. No one called. No one even looked at him. There is no family emergency, she thought.

"Oh." She said, sadness laced her voice. Tommy turned around. He had known this girl for barely a day and he knew that he never wanted to be the reason for the sadness in her voice. But he had and he had to make it right.

"If you didn't want to see me again, you could've said so instead of making up some lame excuse. You think I haven't heard that one before? Well, I have. You didn't have to lie, besides," She placed her hands on her lap and looked down at them,"I would have understood."

"Understood what? That I never want to not see you? That I want nothing more than to see where this goes? By the sound in your voice when you said that, I highly doubt you understand, Anna, but I hope you do now. I have something I need to handle. I'll see you soon, sooner than you think. I promise." With that, Tommy turned and walked out the door with a smile on his face and an Anna in shock.