“Try 20!” she said quitely. “Or 22 for you!”
“Sadie! You could’ve broken it to me a bit more gently!” he teased. “Fucking hell we’re old! Although… have you got some weird Benjamin Button thing going on?! You still look in your early 20’s!” he said incredulously.
Sadie giggled. “That’s what not getting engaged, married, separated or divorced and not having kids does for you!” she quipped.
“It just never happened for you or you engineered it that way?” he asked, cautiously.
Sadie took a deep breath and sighed. “Ehhh…s’pose I just avoided relationships really.” she said, feeling embarrassed. “I’m happily child-free and I don’t want that to change. Whether it’s been me projecting or what, I dunno.” she shrugged. “It got in the way once and took me a long time to find my purpose after that.” she smiled with pursed lips. Stephen nodded. “You’ve been actively seeking for about the same length of time as me, haven’t you? I remember seeing you on the Tinder circuit last year or the year before. Or should that be circus?!” She pondered.
“Definitely a circus!” Stephen laughed then his face suddenly got serious. “You mean to say that you DIDN’T swipe right for me, Sadie?!” he asked with mock disappointment.
Sadie bowed her head and frowned. “Well…I didn’t think…you would swipe right for me so I just…didn’t…” she said slowly in a quiet voice and shrugged.
“What?! REALLY?!” Stephen asked, staring at her. She nodded quickly, feeling self-conscious. “So when we bumped into each other at the coffee place last week you just took a chance?” he smirked.
“Pretty much!” she giggled nervously. “I saw you looking at my ring finger, I remembered feeling like I wished I’d swiped right on Tinder and I felt like I’d nothing else to lose!” she said honestly, letting her vulnerability show. “And if you’d politely declined, I would’ve just avoided you for the rest of our lives!” she teased.
Stephen stared at her and nodded once slowly. Sadie felt awkward. He looked away and then she saw in his face he was deciding to tell her something. “Remember the year after we’d left school and you were working in the store in the shopping centre?” he asked.
Sadie smiled remembering they saw each other nearly every day after almost a year of not seeing each other when Stephen was at catering college. “Yes, you used to come in to get something for your break?” she asked.
Stephen sighed softly. “I worked at the hotel then, I could’ve made anything I wanted for my break AND I walked past 3 newsagents’ on the way to your store!” he said.
“Okay…?” she said, puzzled. “The hotel kitchen was probably stressful. Remember the day you cut your hand and you bought plasters from me then I helped you clean and bandage it?” she asked.
He nodded fondly and pointed to a small scar on the heel of his left hand. “That’s the first day I realised you worked there and I was glad to see you again. So then every day I was working, I came to ‘get something for my break’…” he said, watching her face intently.
She was smiling softly and looking at him when he saw her mind realise what he was saying and her face flushed. She gasped and put her hands over her face. “Oh my God!” She said.
“Ahh the penny’s dropped!” he laughed as he leaned forward on the table.
She looked at him with a bashful expression. “Stephen! Why did you not say anything?! How did I not realise?!” She hissed. “You came in every day to see me?” she asked. He nodded and she put her hand over her heart on her chest. “You know I waited for that every day.” she said and they stared at each other.
“WHAT?! Lies!” he said, with a surprised look on his face.
“No, honestly I really did but didn’t think you liked me like that.” She said, with a melancholy in her voice. Stephen looked down at his plate and sighed a laugh. “If you’d asked me out, I would’ve said yes.” she said quietly with a shy smile. “Oh man, what are we like?!” She said. Stephen chuckled to himself just as the waiter came to lift their plates.
“Do you want dessert?” Stephen asked. She shook her head. “No? Really?! OK. Another drink? We could sit outside on the terrace.” Stephen suggested. Sadie agreed. They got up to go to the bar where Stephen ordered more drinks and paid for their meal.
“Thank you for dinner. The meal was lovely. Thank you for inviting me.” Sadie said as they sat down on a wooden bench under a patio heater on the terrace and Stephen switched it on.
“Not at all, it was my pleasure.” Stephen said as he lay his arm along the back of the bench and Sadie nestled into him. “Thank you for accepting.” They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, sipping their drinks and subconsciously easing their bodies against each other.
“Can I ask you about the Diabetes?” he asked cautiously.
“Of course!” she smiled.
He nodded. “What happened?”
“I had pancreatitis, I was very sick and had to have surgery to remove my pancreas.” she said.
Stephen looked alarmed. “Fucking hell, Sadie! I didn’t know that was…possible?!” He said quickly.
She nodded. “It definitely is, I have the scars, the Diabetes and the trauma to prove it.” she said with a quiet laugh.
Stephen looked thoughtful. “I have so many questions… but I don’t really know where to start. Or IF to start…” he said. Sadie held out her hand indicating for him to continue. “You said about counting the carbohydrate content of your meal?” he asked.
Sadie nodded. “Yeah, I am on a carb counting regime. I have a ratio for each meal time of carb value:insulin so I calculate the carb value of what I’m going to eat and use the ratio to work out how much insulin to give.” she said.