Coffee and Cafés - Book Two of the Café Latte Trilogy

In-Flight Cappuccino

Just the epilogue to go after this upload! I can't believe it's the end, what is time??

Also my birthday just passed and I am now the ripe old age of 27, which means I'm ALMOST the age Ross, Harper and Edward are in Book 1. I can now say I got the level of energy wrong; at 28, they should have been home watching Netflix rather than partying every night. Gosh I'm tired.

Love, Cam

♡

*****

I barely stopped when I landed. I instantly went to Jasper's work. I knew he was likely busy, in meetings, or at a shoot or something, but I couldn't think of anyone else that could handle this conversation the way Jasper would.

"Hi," I greeted the receptionist as I entered the building, still wheeling my suitcase behind me. "I'm here to see Jasper."

The receptionist nodded and checked the schedule. "Um, what name is it? He doesn't have anything in the calendar-"

"I know, I'm a friend," I supplied. "Tom Ramsdale."

Her expression cleared and she nodded, gesturing to the door. "Go ahead, I'll let him know you're here. Second floor, go to the left and just follow the signs for the creative director. Wait in his office."

That had been significantly easier than I'd expected. "Really?" I asked.

"Mr Meyers was very clear," she smiled. "If Tom Ramsdale comes to see him, clear his schedule for an hour and no one else is allowed to use the coffee machine in the meantime."

I smiled to myself as I walked through the door and headed for the stairs. Jasper was a good friend. I followed the directions the receptionist had given me, following the signs for the creative director, and found Jasper's office. It was an absolute mess, full of poster boards of shoot ideas and sketches haphazardly thrown around. I located a chair, underneath a bizarre combination of a suit jacket and a feather boa, and sat down.

It was only a few minutes before Jasper burst into the office with a cup of coffee that he promptly handed to me. I took it gratefully. He sat down opposite me, unearthing a chair that I hadn't even seen, and looked me in the eye seriously.

"What happened?" he asked.

I frowned. "What makes you think something happened?"

"You came straight here from the airport," Jasper gestured to my suitcase. "If you had just wanted to catch up on stuff and talk about your trip, you'd have texted me to arrange something. What happened?"

I hesitated, and then took the box out of my pocket and handed it to him. Jasper took it, opened it, and looked at the ring. I waited for his response, which didn't come for a few seconds while he admired the ring itself.

He looked up at me, his eyebrows narrowing. "What did you say?"

"That I needed to think about it," I answered honestly. "He said no pressure, and that if I don't want to get married at all then it's just a nice ring he wants to give me as a promise to love me forever."

Jasper scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Of course he was all nice and gallant about it."

This was why I had come to Jasper. He understood how frustrating it was to have someone act perfectly wonderful when you were somewhat a mess yourself.

"What are you going to say?" he asked.

I breathed out slowly. "I have no idea. On the one hand, every fibre of my being is saying 'this is too soon, way too soon, you have to think rationally'. On the other hand..."