Meeting You

Chapter Ten

Emma woke up and stretched out, slowly blinking open her eyes. When she looked around she jumped, this was not her dorm or her house. Then the memories of the previous night swept over her like a tsunami over the land, she was at Tom's house! She sat up and slipped out of his bed, looking into his mirror she brushed her hair out with her fingers and then opened the door, stepping out. Light flooded in and she squinted her eyes, making her way down the hallway and to the stairs, walking down them slowly. Suddenly some strong smell, a good one at that, wafted towards her. As she reached the bottom she turned towards the smell and saw Sam in the kitchen making crepes. She smiles as she sits down at the counter, watching him mix the ingredients and flip the batter. Suddenly she feels a warm hand on her shoulder and she turns around, surprised. She sees a familiar smirk and shining brown eyes and smiles.

"Hi, Tom," she laughs.

"Good morning, luv. How did you sleep?"

"Great, your bed is really comfortable." 

Tom laughs, "Isn't it?"

"How about you? I still feel bad about stealing your room."

"I was fine, Emma. The couch is actually really comfortable, trust me."

"You sure?"

"One hundred percent." Emma smiles and turns back around, seeing Sam staring at them. When he sees that she sees him, he quickly turns back around and goes back to cooking. When he finishes he lays out the open crepe tortillas on a plate and puts bananas, strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and powdered sugar out on the counter. Licking her lips, Emma walks up to the counter and starts making hers, spraying the whipped cream on the bottom, sticking the bananas in it and lining the gaps with strawberries, and drizzling chocolate sauce over the top. She folds it and puts a dollop of whipped cream on the top, putting a banana on top and two bananas leaning against it, one on each side, with a strawberry on top of the top one. She drizzles the chocolate sauce over the top and then lightly dusts it with powdered sugar, satisfied with how it looks. Smiling, she walks her plate over to the table, grabbing a fork on the way. She sits down and waits for Tom to sit next to her. When he does she looks at his crepe, it's a mess. The bananas and strawberries are just mixed together, the whipped cream and chocolate drowning it. She stifles a laugh at the sight, but then again she knows it'll still taste good. He sees her crepe and raises his eyebrows at the perfection before turning to his and digging in like a dog who hadn't eaten in a week. She couldn't hold back her laughter this time, laughing like a hyena who just heard the most hilarious joke. When she caught her breath she turned back to her crepe and cut into it, eating the delicious French pastry and thanking Sam for making it. They finish up and stand up, pushing their chairs back. Tom walks her to his car and drives her back to her dorm, where she thanks him once again and goes in, grabbing her books and rushing to her class.

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It had been a few weeks since she had spent the night at Tom's. The snow had melted, but it was still pretty chilly and the trees were still bare. Emma's sitting in her dorm room wearing Tom's leather jacket, unbuttoned, over a white blouse with a v neck and light blue jeans. She' working on her homework, the sky outside a pink and purple sky, the sun setting just beneath the horizon. All of she hears a knock on the door and stands up, pushing her chair back in and heading over to the door. She opens it and sees Tom there, his hands tucked behind his back. Smiling at him, he pulls his arms out, holding a bouquet of red and pink roses. Emma reaches out her arms and pulls him in, making sure not to crush the flowers. 

"Happy one month anniversary, Emma!"

Emma smiles at him, "Happy anniversary, Tom." She takes the flowers from him, holding them up to her nose as she smells their delicate scent, and places them on the foot of her bed and grabs his hand, following him out the door and to his car. They hop in and he drives her out onto the street, getting on a country road as they drive further into the suburbs. He finally pulls to the side of the road and steps out of the car and heads over to Emma, opening the door for her. She steps out and he turns to her, grabbing her hand.

"Close yours eyes," Tom says as he pulls her forwards. She obeys and lets Tom guide her deeper into the woods, the chilly air threatening to break through her jacket, but Tom's hand warming her whole body. All of the sudden he stops moving and she hears him take a deep breath. "Ok,  open." Emma does and her breath hitches at the sight. There is a canopy of trees above them with strings of fairy lights hung all over, almost creating a net above them, pink Chinese lanterns stung throughout. Her eyes move down and she sees an almost black wooden table covered in a white table cloth, lined with foods of all sorts. Sam's standing there in a tux with a dishcloth over his forearm, obviously pretending to be a butler. 

"Monsieur, mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that I welcome you tonight. And now I invite you to relax, let me pull up a chair, as I proudly present, your dinner." She hears Tom stifle a laugh as he sits down because Sam had talked in a French accent the whole time. Emma laughs too when she realizes that he was quoting Lumiere from Be Our Guest but she quickly stops when he opens he opens the lids of the trays on the table. There's bread rolls and salad, steak and lobster, Strawberry-Chocolate Meringue Torte (a cake layered with meringue, chocolate, and strawberries, and topped with whipped cream) and creme brulee. Tom ushers for her to get her food and she happily obliges, taking two rolls, some salad, a little lobster and one of the steak fillets. Tom basically takes the same except a little more lobster, and they dig in, savoring the delicious food. When they finish Emma turns smiles at Tom as Sam clears their plates, replacing them with smaller ones. They each get a slice of the torte and a small bowl of the creme brulee, smiling as they take the smaller fork and bite into the torte, the sweetness of the chocolate and cream mixed with the tartness of the strawberries tasted like heaven in her mouth. When she finished the slice she moved onto the creme brulee, the crispness of the roasted part at the top mixing with the custard below tasting like perfection. 

I probably gained a thousand pounds from this dinner she thought with a laugh as she finished up the dinner. 

"Thank you so much for the delicious dinner, Sam!"

"Of course, Tom helped me with the steak so you should thank him too," he replies, still in his French accent. 

Emma raises her eyebrows at him and he grins at her, "It's true, you should know I'm a master chef." Sam punches his shoulders, his head tilted knowingly. "Ow," Tom says rubbing his arm where his brother had punched him. "Fine, maybe not a master." Emma laughs and takes one last look at the beautiful forest, the stars peeking through the branches, the lanterns and bulbs bathing them in golden and pink light. Sam pulls her chair out and she thanks him, standing up and brushing the crumbs off of her shirt and pants. Tom pushes out his own chair and walks over to Emma, hooking his arm over her shoulders and grabbing her hand with his free one. They make their way to the car where he lets go of her shoulders and opens the door for her. She steps inside and watches as he gets into the driver's seat and pulls out, driving them all the way back to her dorm. They get out and he walks with her to her dorm room door, where they stand and smile at each other.

"Thank you for the wonderful night, Tom."

"Thank you for being wonderful," he replies. The lean in and she wraps her arms around his back, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes. He wraps his arms around her, too, kisses the top of her head and they stay like that for what feels like hours, the only sound the beating of his heart and his soft breaths. They eventually let go and say their good nights and she steps inside her dorm, changing into his tshirt and sweatpants before sliding into her bed, still in awe from the wonderful night.