Sweet As You

(24) Cade

Cade stepped out of the coffee shop and held the door open. He and Matthew run together when he's in town and they grab coffees before going their separate ways. They have done it for years except, this time, Kathie asked to tag along. Pleaded to come with like he has the choice to say no.

Kathie and Matthew followed after him in a much more leisurely pace, their train of conversation never halting. Apparently, his brother knew her way before he did because they often see each other in charity events. And considering his repulsion to social gatherings, it was no mystery that he wouldn't have known her.

"Thanks, Cadey." She beamed while he was still holding the door open.

He nodded.

The three of them stood in the sidewalk. Then there's only him and Kathie left because Matthew had to go.

Nursing their to-go coffees, Cade suggested they walk around the corner and strolled back into the park.

"We're done running though, right?" She walks alongside him.

Cade gestured to the vacant bench nearby. "Yes. Don't worry about it."

She flops down next to him, staring at the babies in their strollers. She turns to him with a smile. "Do you want kids?"

"Kids?"

"Yes. You know, babies." She wags her eyebrows at him.

He rolled his shoulders.

"You're not sure?"

"I do want to have kids."

"When?"

"When I find a suitable mate."

Her nose crinkled. "You just made marriage sound like breeding."

His lips curled. "If you look at it in a different perspective you—"

She holds up a hand. "Other perspective is unromantic."

"What's romantic for you then?"

"I'm not sure." She sips her coffee and thought for a moment. "I guess, making a life together. Sharing all of yourself to the other and vice versa. Fighting and making up. Suffering but never giving up." She snapped her fingers. "Growing old together."

"We all die alone. Not everything is rainbows and butterflies."

Kathie snorted. "Says the guy who orders some sort of pink drink. I'm getting cavities just by looking at it. What is in that drink?"

"Mostly strawberries."

She stared at it, her head tilting to one side like it was oddest thing.

"You want to take a sip?"

Kathie narrowed her eyes cautiously. "Okay." She leaned in and slowly slip the straw between her lips. She took the slightest sip and fisted her hand over her mouth as she coughed a little. "Cadey, how can you drink that? It's too sweet."

Her eyes watered a little and her cheeks were scarlet red. She washes it down with her coffee, still coughing a bit.

"It's not for everybody." He chuckles.

"Oh, my God, it definitely wasn't for me." She dabs the corners of her eyes with her fingers that watered from all the coughing and glared at his drink.

"It's not that bad."

"I couldn't swallow," she countered.

Cade smiled. "Or maybe it was that bad."