The Bars Between Us

47. Surprise

Roman composes himself, and angrily wipes at his face, before his hand going to his pocket, and the ringing phone. Roman swipes to answer it, snapping down the phone to whoever's on the other side.

"What?!"

I can hear a low murmuring as the person on the other end responds. Roman's tears have stopped and he stares stonily ahead of him as he listens to the person on the other end. He doesn't show any emotion, so I don't get a hint at what the person is telling him. His jaw twitches though, and the sight has me worrying. He's angry?

"Yep," he says sharply, clenching his jaw before releasing it. He jabs his finger at the screen once he's taken the phone down from his ear. He places his phone face down on the table and resumes drinking his coffee.

I take a sip of my hot chocolate, hoping to appease him, noticing that he's still somewhat angry. The hot chocolate has cooled down considerably, and there are parts that are cold, while others still cling to the warmth it once had.

"I need to go into work," he says after a moment of silence.

"Ok," I say, hoping that the tone of my voice doesn't sound too excited at the prospect of Roman leaving me alone for the rest of the day. I tell myself that part of it is the relief of him having something to distract himself from the breakdown he just had, but I don't know if I believe myself.

"I don't want to leave you. I promised to stay..."

"Go, it's ok, I understand." It's silent for another moment before I pipe up again. "Do you want me to come with you?" It could give me the opportunity to speak to Nixon, although he's probably still in solitary, and I don't know how easy it'll be to get to him without Roman knowing.

"No, it's alright. I did have something planned for lunch, and you're still able to go if you want to..." He planned something for lunch? "It was meant to be a surprise." Surprise? What's going on? I'm almost scared to ask what it is. All the surprises I've endured over the last years have been bad, although they weren't advertised to me as 'surprises'.

"I don't mind," I respond honestly, but Roman waves me off.

"Go, have lunch," he says sincerely, but with an edge of command. I daren't argue, all of my bravado leaving me with the honesty I just shared with him, so I give in. It's weird, looking at him, I trust him and the 'surprise'. His lips are even starting to twitch up at the corners.

***

I drop Roman off and then proceed to the restaurant name he gave me. It's one we've been to multiple times, and there's nothing special about it, so if this is the surprise, I have to admit it's quite a disappointing one. I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, because at least he thought of me when doing it, but maybe my expectations were too high. I was expecting too much from someone who over the last years has only surprised me with abuse.

I park the car in an empty space near the door, and get out, looking up at the sign, which is new to me. It's then that I realize Roman and I haven't been out in a while together, so maybe I'm being too hard on him. Would it have been better or worse to come back here with Roman? The food is great if they've kept on the same chef, so I'm not too disappointed at coming here specifically.

I pull open the door, and noise bombards my senses. There's a couple of people waiting for me, and the one currently talking to the waiter at the maître d' stand is turned away. Did Roman make a reservation? He's the kind of person to make a plan if he wanted to come here, and he was talking like he had, so I have to trust that he has.

A couple of minutes go by, and I get to the stand, and the woman behind it gives me a big customer-service smile.

"Do you have a reservation?"

"I don't know. I think so." Her smile becomes a bit more forced at me being unsure.

"Name?" she asks, losing some of the brightness.

"Stevens." Her finger skims over the paper looking up to me quickly, before returning her focus to the paper in front of her.

"First name?"

"Roman?" I ask, guessing that he must have used his name when making the reservation.

"Ah yes. Half of your party are already waiting for you, so if you could follow Alice here," she says motioning to the waitress standing nearby, passing her a menu. Half of my party? Who has Roman invited? Will I have to make conversation with someone I don't know, with Roman having gone? I usually rely on Roman to steer the conversation. Did he follow up with his promise with Scott? I've taken an educated guess of there being two people waiting for me because I would have originally arrived with Roman, so is he with his fiancée? The thought excites me.

I weave through the tables, following the waitress closely, wanting to walk faster, but I have no clue where I'm going so I stick at the pace the waitress is setting. She takes me through an arch in the wall, acting as a doorway between the rooms, and through the dimly lit room, as a result of the candles on the tables, I see who we're going to.

Happy Holidays! I'm sorry for not getting these up sooner, it's been a bit confusing with all the different updates and all the different timings. But anyway, I hope you liked it!

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