{"id":223,"date":"2011-01-25T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=223"},"modified":"2013-09-27T15:55:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T22:55:11","slug":"breakfast-in-bed-of-croissant-and-toms-homemade-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=223","title":{"rendered":"Season 1: Episode 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ana felt two arms reach around her waist, a strong body pressing up against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that went ok,\u201d Tom said, holding her tentatively as he gave her a kiss on the neck. \u201cAre we friends again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ana turned away from the sink where she\u2019d begun to wash the dishes. She looked up into Tom\u2019s smiling face, his clear blue eyes shining down at her. He was gorgeous. He was in his usual uniform of faded denim, plain T-shirt and trainers. At 29, he could pass for a first-year university student but Ana knew better. The jeans were EVISU, the shirt Dsquared2 and the trainers were Yohji Yamamoto for Adidas. Try as he might, Tom couldn\u2019t mask the fact that he was an architect earning a six-figure salary.<\/p>\n

And somehow, despite its beginnings, tonight\u2019s dinner had been unexpectedly wonderful. Willow seemed to sense the tension in the air when she arrived but, typically, pushed right through it. And her good mood had rubbed off on everyone. She\u2019d brought home some hand-pressed olive oil from an estate in Italy that only released 200 bottles a year. Who knew where she found such things? And Mia had baked a loaf of spelt bread, which \u2013 although it broke Ana\u2019s rule about no more than one carb per meal \u2013 \u00a0had complemented Ana\u2019s wild mushroom and goat\u2019s cheese pasta beautifully. Mia\u2019s secret? A splash of maple syrup to help the yeast activate and provide a subtle sweetness throughout the loaf. As always, Johnny had come through with terrific wine.<\/p>\n

The girls seemed to love Tom and even Johnny was smitten \u2013 particularly when Tom discovered Johnny had played guitar in one of his favourite teenage rock bands. For the rest of the night Tom couldn\u2019t stop raving about some set Johnny had \u201cshredded\u201d back in the 90s. Ana was thankful for Willow and Mia\u2019s discretion. She knew they\u2019d been watching her and Tom most of the night \u2013 how could they have forgotten the past two weeks of her behaving ridiculously because of Marc \u2013 but they\u2019d been nothing but supportive. She felt lucky to have them in her life and couldn\u2019t believe how irrational she\u2019d been with Tom earlier.<\/p>\n

Were she and Tom friends again? \u201cSure,\u201d Ana said, smiling back at him.<\/p>\n

At her response he touched her face, slowly rubbing the back of her neck. Leaning in to kiss her, he pulled her close and enveloped her in his arms. Ana was finding it difficult to resist him \u2013 and why should she? Marc had lied to her. He\u2019d said he couldn\u2019t spend New Year\u2019s with her because he had to go to a dinner party, but then he\u2019d phoned her from the airport. He needed more time for his family, he said, and was taking his wife on a two-week holiday to the Maldives. Marc was a fantasy, but Tom \u2013 he was real.<\/p>\n

Tom reached under Ana\u2019s blouse, all the while kissing her lips, her ears, her neck. She leaned back slightly as he cupped her breast. He unbuttoned her shirt; she could feel him hard through his jeans. She raised one leg around his hip and the other he grabbed, lifting her on to the wooden kitchen bench top.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure?\u201d he said, pulling away for a moment and resting his forehead on hers, breathing heavily. \u201cWhat about Willow and Mia?\u201d She responded by undoing his jeans and slipping her hand down his boxers. \u201cThey\u2019re heavy sleepers,\u201d she whispered, nibbling at his ear lobe. He didn\u2019t need any more encouragement.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Ana woke to the smell of coffee. She opened her eyes and looked across the bed where she saw Tom laying a tray of croissants, jam and a plunger next to her. He saw she was awake and leaned in for a kiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood morning,\u201d he said. \u201cHungry?\u201d<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t believe how different it was waking up with him. Marc was like a motionless corpse most mornings (or afternoons) when she left, \u00a0but Tom brought her breakfast in bed. Ana sighed to herself. What had she been doing \u2019til now? And where did he get that amazing looking\u00a0jam from?<\/p>\n

She snuck a look at Tom, who was now poring over her modest collection of books. His strong, tanned forearms \u2013 hard with muscle through years of rock climbing \u2013 were visible under his rolled-up sleeves and dark blonde hair hung across his stubbled face. Here was this good, loving man who only wanted to make her happy, and all she could do was lie to him. Ana knew Tom wanted to get serious. He\u2019d been brought up in a traditional home where all his family members still talked to each other. Hell, his parents probably still loved each other. It was normal for him to get domestic and play house, but it wasn\u2019t for Ana. No, what was normal for her was sneaking around with a married man and feeling bad about herself the whole time. What was normal for her was treating a great guy like rubbish because she was holding out for some arsehole who would never, ever leave his wife. She made up her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d she said softly, \u201cabout our fight last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom sat on her side of the bed and played with her hair. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry if I\u2019ve been wanting to spend too much time with you. I\u2019ll step back a bit, I promise. I just love being around you, no matter how often. Just let me know what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, \u201cthat\u2019s not it.\u201d She leaned across his lap and picked her handbag off the floor. Reaching inside she pulled out her spare set of house keys and handed them to him. \u201cHere. Seeing you last night with the girls and Johnny… they\u2019re the most important people in my life. I want you to feel like you\u2019re a part of that, a part of my home. I don\u2019t want to see less of you, I want to see you more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom looked at her, then at the keys in his hand and squeezed them tight. Ana waited for him to say something. Instead, he pulled the covers over both of them and, working up her body, he showed Ana just how grateful he was.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ana felt two arms reach around her waist, a strong body pressing up against her. \u201cWell, that went ok,\u201d Tom said, holding her tentatively as he gave her a kiss on the neck. \u201cAre we friends again?\u201d Ana turned away from the sink where she\u2019d begun to wash the dishes. She looked up into Tom\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[197],"tags":[51,78,166,174,183,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1169,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}