The Christmas Present

The next day Sharni dressed with care, wanting to look her best for when she met Mitch again. But despite being busy her time at work dragged. She was excited to see him again and just wished the intervening hours would disappear. At last it was time to leave and she hurried to the shopping centre. The traffic was bad and she was worried she’d be late but with five minutes to spare she took a seat at the same café they’d had coffee in the day before. She was glad it was late night shopping all this week. If not the café would have been packing up by the time she got there. 

Sharni didn’t order, she wanted to wait for Mitch, thinking maybe coffee might stretch into dinner. She hoped so anyway. But not wanting to sit there looking expectant and possibly a little desperate, while she waited she pulled out her phone and checked through her emails. However each time someone came into the cafe she couldn’t help her head snapping up.

For half an hour Sharni sat there and waited. But none of the many people walking into the café or passing by it were Mitch. Finally she gave up. She should have known it was too good to be true. Things like that just didn’t happen to her and with sadness and disappointment tightening her chest Sharni got up. Walking over to the counter ordered a take away coffee. After occupying a table for so long she didn’t feel right just leaving without buying something. 

Taking her coffee from the girl behind the counter she walked away deciding to get some of the food items she needed for Christmas while she was there. It was a little early as Christmas was still a number of days away but at least then this trip wouldn’t be a completely wasted effort. However try as she may that thought did nothing to dispel the despondency settling deep in her chest.