Falling Walls (III)

Chapter 23

The entire morning I felt a kind of restlessness deep inside. Apart from both my pinkies, all my nails were down to fingertip level. I had resorted to chewing on a pencil, which I couldn't remember doing since I was in primary school. I gave myself a small smack on my hand. At that, Tom looked over from his desk with a quizzical glance. I shrug my shoulders with a sorry kind of look and concentrated back on the screen, which of course didn't work. What was going on with me?

"Do you want a coffee?" Tom asked from across the room. Of course I did. I always did. He should know that by now.
"Yes, please!"

The humming of the coffee machine was like a quiet rhythm in my brain, taking up all of my focus.
"Actually, I might have a hot chocolate if you have some. I already had two coffees this morning."

"Hot chocolate?" Tom repeated like he misunderstood me.
"Yep." I hadn't had one in ages. I actually couldn't remember the last time I had had one. Too many calories. Although, I did often take a spoon full out of the kids cups before serving them theirs. Funny enough, that's exactly what Tom did before he handed me mine.

Sipping the hot sweetness, I completely indulged in it. Then it clicked. I must be getting my period. No, that would be too early. The shot had just expired a few days earlier and many women didn't get their periods back for several months. Ah well, it's just a hot chocolate. No need to analyse it. And before I could get caught up in analysing my need for a hot chocolate any further, the receptionists voice sounded through the intercom, announcing my mum.

"My mum? Why is my mum here?" I whispered over to Tom, as if my mum was already in the room. He returned my quizzical look while instructing Ms Ludwig to show her in. When the door opened, Emma and Sam walked in, eyes bright, soaking in their surrounding in wonder. My mother followed them suit, I could see her eyes swift across the room too, but they soon landed on me, with a smile. I knew that smile. It was her poker face smile.

"Surprise," my mum announced, a little unsure while slowly following the kids inside.

"That is a great surprise," I played along, not sure how else to react. The kids were so excited, looking at everything in the room and marvelling at the view. Sam was getting even more enthusiastic when he noticed all the flash IT appliances. While they inspected everything with Tom happily volunteering to show them around, I fired away at my mum.

"I thought you were coming here on the weekend. What happened?"

"I thought we'd surprise you. We can leave again. I can take the kids with me. I just thought you would love to see them."

"Of course I'm happy to see my kids and have them here, I'm just surprised," I defended myself, downing the remainder of my now cold chocolate. "Didn't you say yesterday that you still had so many things planned?"

My mum sighed deeply and I noticed her beginning to pick on the skin around her thumb with her middle finger, the same nasty habit as I did.

"A friend of mine back from university lives in Hamburg and invited me. I told her that I was coming up on the weekend, but she'll be away, so I decided to come early. And the kids liked the idea of surprising you." I never knew my mum had a friend in Hamburg, but I was getting excited about showing the twins this beautiful city.

"I have a meeting in five. Shall I meet you all here in an hour?" Tom announced, peeking around his computer, with Emma and Sam on either side of him.

Sam ended up going with Tom to his meeting, after pleading his case that this would be an invaluable experience for him, especially if he were to pick economics next year at school. My mum said her good-bye. She would spend the day and night at her friends, so it was just Emma and I. And because a hot chocolate in the morning couldn't possibly be enough, we went to have a milkshake each, catching up on what Emma had been doing the past few days.

When we returned to the office, Tom suggested we go home together and then have an outing. He showed the children the city and we did manage to tick the Chocoversum off the list, Hamburg's famous chocolate museum. Sugar overload.

We made our way home early. Disappointment seeped through me while staring at the landscape rushing by outside the passenger window. I had so been looking forward to Eva's talk in the evening. With the kids being here, as much as I loved them, we couldn't go. For a moment I considered asking Tom if he would mind me going alone, since he hadn't been keen anyway. But deep down I knew that us going together had been the whole point. I had read Eva's book. I knew all about her story and could easily send her a business email with Tom's company logo on it to set up a meeting for discussing a joint project. Secretly I was worried that Tom might even offer to look after the kids while I attend the session. No, I much rather spend the evening with my favourite three people.