Begin Again

Chapter 24

Holding the flowers in front of my clothes I knock on the door. I was nervous as hell about tonight. But I was excited for it as well. The next moment the door goes flying open revealing a very excited looking Claire.

"Happy two Year Anniversary Babe." I say handing her the flowers

Her smile just about wrapped around her face as she took the flowers. Then she took in my outfit and the smile disappeared. Looking down at her own outfit the smile returns to her face.

"This takes me back two years. Happy Anniversary Sweety." She says as she throws her arms around my neck giving me a kiss. Kissing her back I couldn't help smile at her reaction. It was exactly what I had wanted to happen.

"Ready to go?" I ask

"Yeah just let me grab my purse." She says disappearing into the apartment. A moment later she returns locking the door behind her as we headed for the car.

"So where are we going?" she asks

"You will know soon enough." I say winking at her

The rest of the car ride we chatted about everything and nothing till we turned into the small side street and recognition dawned on her.

"Are we going to The Corner Café?" she asks

"Yeah, I had hoped to take you to the place we had our first date but seems like they closed it down." I say smiling at her.

Taking her hand I lead her through the front door.

"Well I understand why. The both of us were as sick as dogs for a week after we ate there. But I love the café so it's an amazing second choice." She says kissing my cheek.

"Your table is ready for you Mr Gillen. You can follow me." says the waiter leading the way to the back of the restaurant.

Pulling out the chair I wait for Claire to take her seat then pushed it in. Taking the seat opposite her the amazement was very visible on her face. I could see she loved this.

I had come over earlier today and made sure the owner knew what I wanted to do. So he had moved the other tables further back giving us a little bit of privacy and set up our table with candles and rose petals making it look very romantic.

The waiter brought her a glass of white wine and a beer for me. The sparkling wine was chilling in the ice bucket waiting for me to give the signal.

"You look beautiful by the way." I say leaning over the table to give her another kiss. Just as am image on Sam flashed through my head of three days ago.

"Thank you Brandon. Thank you for this." She says waving her arm around the café.

I few minutes later the waiter placed our dinner in front of us. On our first date we ate pasta and I wanted to keep remembering that date so I pre ordered our dinner. Ever though the café didn't have pasta they had lasagna which was close enough.

Laughing at the fact that I pre ordered everything I could see the love shining in her eyes.

"You really did remember all the details about that night. I thought you were just counting the seconds until you can drop me home and forget you ever met me."

"At first I did. But then the excitement you had for picking that place and the food took hold of me and I couldn't not pay attention to you. Even when we tasted it and nearly spit it all over the table"

"You kept face well that night. The place was a terrible choice and the food even worse. But it's still the best date I have ever been on." She says digging in.

The both of us lift our forks with the pasta and took a bite together.

At least it was better than the other places pasta. Looking over to Claire I could see she was thinking the same thing. As our eyes met and we both burst out laughing.

The rest of the dinner went smoothly. I warned her to leave space for dessert as I ordered the specialty and she just laughed ensuring me that she would always have space for dessert. We sat and talked for some time.

Just reliving that terrible first date and how if it wasn't for that we would most probably not be sitting at this table right now. But what bugged me was the fact that I just kept thinking that if it wasn't for Sam running scared I might be sitting here with her and not Claire.

After that thought popped into my mind it was difficult to get her face out of my mind as well the conversation we had. So every time the waiter wanted to approach with the dessert I would tell him no and I would spend another ten minutes trying to get Sam's face out of my mind.

After about another half hour I finally decided if I was going to do this, and I am going to, I had to do it now. So taking a deep breath I signaled the waiter and waiter for him to bring the dessert. A Picasso Fudge Cake with whipped cream and ice cream to share. Like we always do.

The next part I have been rehearsing for the last three days and I was out of my mind nervous about it. So taking a deep breath I told her like I always do to close her eyes. It was a tradition with us for me to feed her the first piece of Picasso before we started sharing.

So she closed her eyes and expectantly opened her mouth awaiting the first bite. But instead pulling out the ring box I opened it as I went down on one knee in front of her. Taking one final deep breath. I start.

"Open your eyes Claire." I say to her

I could see the confusion as she closed her mouth but still not opening her eyes.

"Open your eyes Claire." I say again

This time she slowly opened her eyes. It took her a few seconds to register what was happened but as soon as she did her eyes sprang full of tears.

"Claire, I know when we went on our first date two years ago I wanted nothing more but to not be on that date. I tried so hard to get you to cut it short and just go home but you just kept smiling, forcing food into your mouth and trying to keep the conversation going."

"I tried my best to not care and not listen but I couldn't. You grabbed my attention when you made the best of the worst possible date in history never giving up on it for one second, and when I dropped you back home I wanted nothing more than to have a re-do."

"So this is my re-do, but with a small twist."

Her smile was around her head and she was already nodding yes but I was adamant to see this through to the last word. So taking a deep breath I asked her the single most important question of my entire life.

"Claire Emily Harrop will you do me the greatest honor ever of becoming my wife?"

***

I thought my world dropped out from under me the day I heard about my brother dying but as I stood there in the door of The Corner Café I finally realized what it feels like when your world drops out from under you.

I came in after my shift wanting to get a piece of Picasso cake and a coffee then head back to the apartment and watch romance movies all night long, but the universe had other plans for me.

Right after I stepped into the café my eyes caught someone going down on one knee. Looking over to where my eye caught the movement my entire life ended. There was Brandon on one knee in front of a very teary eyed Claire nodding yes and then everyone was applauding.

Before they could look up at the people cheering them I turned on my heel and ran from the café as fast as the tears blurring my steps would allow me to go.