The Winter Proposal

The Bell

         As I sit awaiting Theo, Gracie brings my coffee and a croissant over to me, surprisingly for a Saturday morning in NYC no one is here this morning. I patiently sat for about ten minutes before I heard the bell ring. I turned my head in high hopes it was Theo, sadly it was just a middle aged woman getting her morning coffee, with two creams and two sugars. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, to see if I had any missed calls or texts, maybe Theo was running late?
         As I was busy on my phone, I didn't hear the bell ring, Theo had walked in, got his coffee and was headed for my table. "Hello beautiful" his smooth voice rumbled through my ears. "Good morning Theo, thank you for inviting me to breakfast" I say. "Well you've already order, paid and sat down. I would've paid for breakfast and at least cut up your doughnut- oh you got a croissant this morning, hopefully I won't have to save you from this breakfast" he says in a joking manner. " Thankfully this one is a bit smoother to go down if someone makes me laugh" I say with a wink then I take a bite of my croissant. Being around Theo made me feel so, normal. I didn't have to put on the brave face of  being a manager and running a business, taking all of my time and energy.
        Theo had somehow still ended up paying for my coffee, he got me one to go. I was thankful because he had woken me up on my one day to sleep in, I needed that coffee! While we sat we chatted about work snd gotten to know each other a little bit better. "Wow so you own-are Sarah's Designs? I never put that together, that's amazing. How is the business running?" Theo asked. "It is going decent, but not all the time does someone need an interior designer so we do have our fair share of being slow" I responded.
"Sarah I was wondering if you would like to join me for dinner, this Tuesday night?" Theo asked. A smile started to creep on my face while I said, "I would love to." Then remembering Joan was able to get her son out of his apartment for those two nights, Monday and Tuesday, but I could take a couple hours out of my day for dinner. "Where shall we go?" I said after thinking. "I was thinking of having you name your favorite place and we will go there" Theo suggested. Chinese food was my favorite, but I couldn't tell him that and have our first date be there, I had to think.
After sipping our coffees and talking at the coffee shop, we started walking around the city aimlessly. The weather was perfect for spring morning. The sun was out, it was 65 degrees with no rain or cloud in sight. Theo asked, "So where about in the city do you live?" "I live right around the corner from the coffee shop, that's my daily stop on my way to work in the mornings. What about you, where do you live?" I questioned, maybe he lives close. "I actually live a little bit uptown, I just moved in not too long ago. My art gallery however is just right down the road from the coffee shop, I do visit it often" Theo replied. So not too far, and his gallery is close. That's a win for me! Walking along side of him and talking just felt right, it wasn't awkward and we could keep our conversations going. Eventually we parted ways, planning to see each other again in a few nights.
         Later that Saturday night I ended up going to Jazmine's house, I needed a night in with my girl. We grabbed a couple bottles of wine, ordered a pizza and put on a comedy movie for background noise. "So who is this mystery man you called me so early freaking out about?" Jazmine questioned. I gave her the full run down, his name is Theo, the doughnut, the breakfast and of course I had to show her all of our texts. "Sarah, I am so happy for you. I've been waiting for you to find someone for so long, we can finally double date!" Jazmine says. "Rory is going to be thrilled once he finds out I finally found a guy. At least he'll have someone to talk to while we get into our gossip" I said laughing. She nodded her head agreeing with me. Jazmine's boyfriend, Rory was a funny guy with a big personality, so far I think him and Theo would get along great.
         "Jaz, he asked me to dinner on Tuesday night, I have to take care of a client all day Monday and Tuesday. She was only able to get her son out for a couple of days with this as a surprise, I have to find a place and an outfit." I started rambling out. "Why don't we finish this glass of wine and start thinking of food places you like to eat and after that we can go to my closet and check out what I have" Jazmine said in an effort to calm my nerves. Thankfully we are the same size so sharing clothes with her was not new to me, she had helped me out anytime I had a big event to attend. Jazmine is a fashion consultant for some big celebrities in the city, she always knew the latest styles. We finished our wine and headed to her closet, her looking at clothes and I was browsing my phone for decent restaurants, imagining how our first date will go.