{"id":578,"date":"2011-08-23T06:33:25","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T19:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=578"},"modified":"2013-09-27T16:45:45","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T23:45:45","slug":"a-surprise-guest-for-a-pasta-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=578","title":{"rendered":"Season 3: Episode 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sarah carried the last of her boxes into the house and plonked down contentedly on a bar stool in the well-let kitchen. Being a Thursday afternoon, Mia and Willow were both at work and she had the whole house to herself. She too should have been at the office, but Tom \u2013 now officially<\/em> the best boss in the world \u2013 had given her some time off to move into her new place.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the day,\u201d he\u2019d said. \u201cMoving is exhausting and the last thing you want is to be stressing about work. You can just make it up by working extra hard tomorrow,\u201d he\u2019d added with a wink.<\/p>\n

She dangled her legs beneath her happily, like a little kid in an ice-cream shop, looking around the kitchen with excitement.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have to do something extra nice for Tom<\/i>, thought Sarah, to say thank you for everything<\/i>.<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t believe how well her new life in Melbourne was working out; she\u2019d landed an amazing job, her boss was just wonderful, she\u2019d managed to find a room in a fantastic house and her housemates \u2013 Willow and Mia \u2013 seemed absolutely lovely. She liked that they seemed to have their own lives but still enjoyed each other\u2019s company. It was a nice change to other share houses she\u2019d lived in where the general tone was punctuated with slamming doors and sour looks.<\/p>\n

Sarah thought the house itself, with its large rooms and glossy wooden boards, was beautiful. Her new room had an ornate ceiling rose from which an antique light hung. She thought it was terribly romantic, like something out of a novel, and she had spent a significant part of the morning looking up at the ceiling in her bedroom and sighing in happiness. As Sarah didn\u2019t have any furniture of her own yet, Ana had kindly left her old bed in the room.<\/p>\n

Ana had always slept with the bed pushed up hard against the wall, but Sarah wanted to be able to lie in bed and stare up at the embellished ceiling. With difficulty, she heaved the bed across the carpeted floor until it was in the centre of the room. The dust from underneath it circled upwards, the afternoon light catching it as it meandered through the still air. She wrinkled her nose and sneezed. Dusting was obviously not one of Ana\u2019s fortes.<\/p>\n

Amongst the expected pen lids and odd socks that were always found underneath old furniture, a small blue box caught Sarah\u2019s eye. She leant down and picked it up, flipping the stiff lid open. Inside was an intricate white gold broach set with a large purple stone. Sarah frowned. She fingered the delicate piece of jewellery carefully, gazing at the colours that skittered across the top of the jewel.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long to put her belongings away and once Sarah had set up her room she felt like celebrating. Perhaps Mia and Willow would be home tonight and she could cook them all dinner and they could share a bottle of wine? She sent them both a quick text message but they replied that they were going out for a drink with Ana to discuss the final details of the wedding and wouldn\u2019t be home until later. Sarah was momentarily hurt that she wasn\u2019t invited too. The rational side of her knew that these girls had been friends forever and she was a total newcomer. Besides, they had already done plenty to make her feel welcome, such as Ana and Tom had inviting her to their wedding next week despite the fact they barely knew her. But still, her new housemates could have asked her to come along and meet them after they\u2019d done their wedding chit chat.<\/p>\n

Sarah chewed her nails thoughtfully. Suddenly she had an idea. She grabbed her handbag and jacket, checked her makeup, and left the house.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Tom was putting the finishing touches to a simple meal of linguine with roasted garlic, preserved lemon, parsley and capers when the intercom sounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTom, hi. It\u2019s Sarah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom frowned. Sarah?<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to drop off a small thank you gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, that<\/em> Sarah. \u201cCome on up,\u201d he laughed buzzing the safety door to let her in.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Tom let her inside the apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAna will be sad that she missed you,\u201d he said, taking Sarah\u2019s jacket. \u201cShe\u2019s gone out for a drink with the girls \u2013 pre-wedding stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah smiled. \u201cOh well. Next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you eaten? I just made some pasta and there is plenty for two.\u201d Tom asked.<\/p>\n

Sarah shook her head. \u201cNo, no. I don\u2019t want to interrupt your evening. I just wanted to drop this off.\u201d<\/p>\n

She handed him a wrapped box that she had picked up on the way to his house. Tom opened it. Nestled inside were two bottles of Veuve Clicquot.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on,\u201d he said leading the way into the kitchen. \u201cLets open one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about Ana? I thought you could share them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom looked momentarily torn, but instead started unwrapping the foil from the cork. \u201cThere are two of them. We can have the other. Besides,\u201d he added, \u201cIt\u2019s terribly rude if someone brings you a bottle not to share it with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah smiled. \u201cAll right. And maybe I will take you up on the offer of dinner. I\u2019m starving and it smells delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When Ana came home hours later Tom was already asleep. She noticed the empty bowls and champagne glasses in the kitchen and smiled, glad that it looked like he\u2019d had a good evening too. She didn\u2019t know that he had plans to catch up with anyone, but being Tom he had probably just forgotten to tell her.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d had a wonderful night spending time with Willow and Mia. She\u2019d only moved out the day prior, but already she missed them. They were being so great about all the wedding preparations and had gone above and beyond the call of duty to help out. The catering was organised, her dress was ready and everyone \u2013 especially her \u2013 was getting very excited. She couldn\u2019t believe that in only a week she would be married!<\/p>\n

There was only one small niggle that she couldn\u2019t shake. On the big day, Ana had wanted to wear something old, new, borrowed and blue. It was corny, but she liked the sentiment. The new, blue and borrowed were all sorted but the old was proving very evasive. She had been planning to wear a brooch which had been left to Ana when Grannie Bessie \u2013 the only member of her family that Ana had genuinely got along with \u2013 passed away several years ago. She had searched all her boxes, to no avail. She didn\u2019t want to ask anyone about it just yet, because as soon as you did that, it was admitting that it was lost.<\/p>\n

Ana yawned and stretched. Time to curl up in bed with her Tom.<\/p>\n

It will turn up<\/i>, she thought. Tomorrow I will find it.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah carried the last of her boxes into the house and plonked down contentedly on a bar stool in the well-let kitchen. Being a Thursday afternoon, Mia and Willow were both at work and she had the whole house to herself. She too should have been at the office, but Tom \u2013 now officially the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[199],"tags":[31,106,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578"}],"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=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}