When they left... the waiter gave her a rose.

It was her Birthday. They ate at a restaurant overlooking the water. There were no other patrons, and the waiter, attentively, kept topping up her wine, so she quite lost track of how much she had drunk. She felt it go to her head and weigh heavily on her knees.

They ate muscles, in a steamy tomato broth, piquant and spicy... and crusty fresh bread spread with salty curls of butter.

She hardly knew him.

He had a crumb on the corner of his mouth and darlingly, she brushed it aside with her fingertips. “There was a crumb” she said, by way of explanation.

He held her gaze.

“You just wanted an excuse to touch my face” he said.

She started to feel the room spin...

because it was true.