Brunch

“Good morning, Ms Romey.” Benson passed me balancing a silver tray. I descended down our staircase and looked in the kitchen for my mum. Odd, she always eats breakfast there on Saturday mornings. She wasn’t on the sun porch either or in her study. Where was she? Katherine passed me with a huge vase of peonies. Okay, was my mum going through a mid-life crisis?

“Oh! Ms Romey! Come, you must get dressed.” Mary guided me back up the stairs to my room.

“Ready? For what? I just woke up and it’s a Saturday!”

“Oh, well, um, your mother has a… brunch planned.” I raise my eyebrows at her. “Look! She picked out an outfit for you.” On my bed, which had miraculously been made in the three minutes I was gone, was a tulle skirt, a buttoned peach blouse, and some ballet flats.

“This is so not something my mum would usually pick out.” I showered, changed, and put on the blue ballerina flats. Mary was gone already. So weird. I brushed my hair, donned a blue headscarf and looked down the hallway. No one. Usually, the house is buzzing on Saturdays.

I walked downstairs and again, no one. “Ms Romey, the brunch is set up in the garden room.” Katherine pointed down the hall to Cade’s favourite room in our house. My flats clicked down the hall into the sunlight room and there was my mum… and some lady reading a newspaper. This could not get any weirder.

“Well, you took long enough to get ready.” The lady lay her newspaper down and it was not ‘some lady,’ but rather, Cade.

“Eeeeeeeeeek!” I ran over to her. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I had a three day weekend and thought why not go visit my favourite English girl? Plus, I needed to here about this ball in person. Sit down, I’m starved.” She pulled me into the velvet pink chairs that my mother let her pick out and grabbed a strawberry.

“I’ll let you girls chat. I have some work to finish.” My mother kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you so much, mum!”

“I really should have known you were behind this. I mean, the peonies, the tulle skirt, the trays of espresso, brunch in the garden room, and the luggage being brought up to your room?” I laughed and grabbed a buttery croissant that I know had been baked this morning at the patisserie down the street.

Cade and I chatted for hours. It had only been a few weeks since we had seen each other last, but we had so much to catch up on.

“So… you finally sealed the deal with Lucas?”

Like I said, a lot to catch up on.

Xx,

Romey