My eyes fly back up to his, warmed by his honesty. I hadn’t seen him since yesterday morning. It felt like an age. God, he looks good enough to eat.
“I missed you too.”
“How much?” His arms encircle my waist loosely, and tug, encouraging me to lean back into his warmth.
“Now don’t get cocky Silver.” I tilt my head to meet his gaze, now smiling down at me with mirth.
“I love to watch your mouth when you say the word cock.”
I playfully tap his hands at my waist. “Not with children around you naughty boy. Anyway how’d you know we were here?” I wait a second before answering my own question. “Jackie.”
“Jillie - yes.”
This rewards him with another whack. He always gets peoples names wrong but I know he’s purposely teasing me now and I like it - like the familiarity that is creeping back in. The way he’s holding me close to him, yet we are still maintaining banter, it’s the perfect balance of friends and lovers. I love it. I love him.
“Sub!”
A squealing little blonde man runs full pelt at Sebastian, interrupting our bubble and Seb breaks the link instantly to pick Finn up and place him on his shoulders.
“Now then, Finnster - what say we go and get some pancakes in the diner?”
“Yayyyyyy! Can we Mum - can we?”
I giggle at his exuberant manner. “Of course we can. We were going to anyway. Are you joining us Seb?”
“Only if we can sit in one of those American Diner booths that looks like a car!” His mouth is a stubborn line of determination. I don’t think he’s kidding.
“Oh really? You big kid! Well come on and let’s see what the queue is like. It’s always heaving in here.”
We head into the entrance, the smell of crispy bacon, burgers and hot chocolate hitting us immediately. The waitress on the door, fitted with a headset and iPad registers our booking and says she’ll call when a table is free. It should be 10 minutes or so. That’s not too bad. I’ve been before and it’s been over an hour.
“Lets grab a drink at the bar and we’ll check out the menu.” Seb picks Finn up and carefully places him on a high backed leather stool then grins back at me. “I love this place - how’d you find it?”
“It’s one of my jobs.” I reply proud of the fact.
“Really? It’s fabulous Lu. I love the 1950’s style and all the gadgets. When did you design it?”
“A couple of years back. It was a new concept then, the whole farm opening a restaurant / cafe and playbarn but its taken off and now they’ve opened two further cafes in neighbouring Counties.”
“We’ll have to come here more often. Finn obviously adores it!”
That would be so nice. Are we starting to make plans now as a family?
“He does and we will. The food is to die for. You must have a chilli burger.”
“My mouth is watering at the thought.”
Seb nods to the waitress behind the counter at the bar and makes short work of ordering two coke floats and a diet coke for me. Within minutes Finn and Seb are happily poking at their sludgy ice-cream with straws and belly laughing as they make a disgusting dribbly mess down the side of the tall knickerbockerglory glasses.
“Dude you win. You are definitely the best mixer-upper!”
“I know. I am aren’t I! Mummy, Sub says I’m the best mixer-upper!”
“Of course he did - you are fantastic but lets try and get some of it in your mouth- hey?”
I smile at the two of them. They get on so well and adore one another. Finn is always so calm when Seb is around it makes me sad at the same time that he’s been missing out on that father-figure. Niall is starting to step-up more, seeing him on weekends and even taking him for tea on the odd weeknight so I’m hopeful that it will continue. As long as my lovely little boy is happy and knows he’s loved.
We look up as the earlier waitress shouts out “Silver family? Table for Silver?”
I could get used to this.
It’s a race between Seb and Finn as to who sits where and in the end Seb submits and allows Finn to sit at the side with the driving wheel attached to his right. Perfect to entertain him whilst we await the food. We place our orders promptly and settle back into the booth to enjoy the ambience. The duke box plays The Beach Boys in the background, old Coca-Cola memorabilia crowds the walls and shelves and illustrations of the perfect 2.4 1950’s family hang in huge poster frames. The mint green, walls black and white floor, combined with dark red leather and mustard touches might seem clashing but combined it felt like we were in a Grease movie and I have to say I’d really knocked it out of the park with this one - the client had been pleased but so was I - it had a great vibe.