**I've used this sort of chapter ending before elsewhere and a while ago, but not here.
Whoa... Deja vu, writer's style. O_o
---------------
Because he wanted to do a little grocery shopping, he loaded Honey into his truck on their third day together and took her to town to run in the park. Honey was an instant hit with the morning jogger crowd as she drew smiles and comments from just about anyone they met. Moreth was amazed.
He was on one knee, muttering to her that he hoped that her effort was at least sufficient for the next hour, since he'd only brought one bag to pick up after her when he noticed a woman sitting on a bench maybe a hundred feet off. She was holding onto a large paper cup of coffee from the diner nearby and seemed to be looking a little beyond the horizon.
He noted a few details automatically. She looked to be in her early thirties and was dressed a little out of place for the time of day, it still being early morning and the sun hadn't been up for long. She looked to him to be about ready to head in to the office, perhaps, or she might be waiting for her ride to show up. But then, that didn't fit, since she was too far from the street to make it likely. The way that she was dressed, she would have fit right in maybe five hours from now at lunch time, but at this time, she just stood out a little. He looked away and then looked again.
She had a nice face and slightly short blonde hair. Without meaning to at all, he compared her to Julie and saw that her figure was a little softer and less angular, but then, his ex had always been something of a predator and her figure just seemed to match that somehow. He knew that a person's build had little to do with their personality, but on Julie it had always been rather clear to him – well, at least once he'd figured it out maybe five years in, and after not having seen her for at least two.
It hit him then on the second look. She wasn't dressed anywhere near as trendy as he knew that the women around here and in any half-assed cosmopolitan place would. She seemed to be looking something like an apparition right out of maybe ten years ago and he wondered about that.
She hadn't noticed them at all yet and Moreth shook off his thoughts as he began to walk Honey away in silence. Within a minute, they were trotting and he was getting worked up for their run. He hoped that he could get the idea across that he would really like it if he might be allowed to set the pace.
They were on the way back when he recognized the bench where the woman had been sitting. There was no one on it now, and he decided against going another round with Honey today. He was nowhere near ready to pack it in just yet, but he remembered the vet's advice, so he slowed them down to a walk again. Once he had Honey into the truck, he was about to just drive home when he thought about grabbing a cup of coffee, so he headed there.
On his way in, he saw her at a table by a window. She was looking out at something a million miles away again and was oblivious to him. Other than the soft and gentle way that she seemed to appeal to him somehow, it was fine with him if she didn't notice him. He'd never been the type who'd needed to be noticed much. It sure hadn't gone well for anyone whenever he had been noticed, he thought, other than maybe his ex-wife.
What wasn't fine with him was the tear that he saw on her cheek for a second. She noticed it and wiped it away rather hurriedly and then looked through the window a little self-consciously to see if anyone might have been looking and maybe noticed it. Moreth looked down at his feet quickly as he stepped up onto the curb and made his way to the door of the place.
Aside from the woman working the counter and the man in the back who was just cleaning up after the morning's baking that had begun hours ago at about three-thirty, there was no one in the place but Moreth and the woman, he noticed as he walked to the counter.
"Hi," he heard the blonde say, just a little too loudly and with just a hint too much effort behind it. Moreth turned his head and nodded with a polite smile, "Good morning."
He had alarm bells going off all over the inside of his head in an instant, from just one look into her eyes from thirty feet away.
"Mornin' Hun," the woman behind the counter said, "What'll you have, Darlin'?"
"I think I'm going to need two large regular coffees, two butter croissants, and a toasted sesame seed bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese, please."
He shook his head a little, "It sounds really dumb if I say it like that, doesn't it?"
"That's ok, Gorgeous," the cheery woman laughed, "I understood it. Be 'bout a minute for the bagel."
He nodded and looked down as he fished in his little pouch for the cash. His mind wouldn't let him turn his attention away from the feel of the blonde's eyes as she looked at his back. He really hoped that he was wrong.
Joss Whitfield's stomach had been in knots since the day before. Right now, those knots almost burned as they tightened up a little more in fear and apprehension. It wouldn't hurt so much if there had been any food in her stomach. She didn't want to do this, she told herself, but she'd run out of options over a week ago, and her sense of desperation was driving her now. It was about all that she had left.
She just hoped that she didn't throw up again.
She watched his back from a rear three-quarter view. He seemed nice, she told herself. He didn't look rough or dirty and his clothes were clean. She'd have called him really good–looking if it weren't for what she needed to do in another few seconds. She tried to be ready while at the same time, trying not to think about it.
He was about six feet tall or a little under that, she guessed, clean-shaven, but with the shadow that showed her that he hadn't shaved yet today, and his beard looked to be about as short as his hair. She thought that she'd noticed the male pattern baldness right there at the front as he'd come in, but he was turned away from her now.
In a different place and time, she'd have allowed herself to admire his body a little. He looked to be dressed for jogging, and she guessed that since he was here, he must have already done that. He seemed to be built rather well, though in a way that said more to her about evenness, somehow. She had no explanation for that until it came to her that, if he'd been an athlete in college, maybe, she was sure that he'd have been a swimmer. There looked to be a lot of strength to him, but it seemed to be evenly distributed everywhere on him.
She saw that he had everything that he'd come in for and did her best to gather what little courage she might have had left. She knew that she had to force her voice a little because if she didn't, she was sure that she'd only be able to squeak at him at best.
But she didn't really get a chance to push her voice.
Before she knew it, he was sitting down across the table from her. Joss looked into the steel-gray eyes that regarded her evenly and thought that she might faint from the shock of it and the fear that she felt, and , ... her heart felt like it was about ready to just stop or maybe explode or something. She wanted to cry now.
She'd never met or known a man like this in her life. If she was 'looking', he'd have been only about a mile out of her league, the way that she figured it – and that would have been when she had something more of a life to play with. Right now, she had nothing left, and the irony was colder and more cruel than anything that she'd ever felt – other than the day almost a year ago when this had all started.
Moreth had planned to shake this up a bit. He wouldn't normally have done anything like this if it hadn't been for what he thought that he'd seen in her soft, blue eyes. From up this close, he was saddened to see that he'd been right on the money. He wanted to shake his head.
Joss saw those eyes soften a little as he smiled. "Please pardon me, but it looked to me like your coffee there is empty, so I thought that you might like another." He reached out his hand, "My name's Chris."
It sounded odd to her somehow. A name like Chris was alright and perfectly fine for a man as handsome as he was, and it suited him somehow, but there was something else, and she couldn't figure it for the moment. She liked the feel of his hand as she took it for just a second. She really wanted to hold it for a lot longer, since it felt as warm and friendly as the rest of him appeared to be.
"How did you know?" she asked, mystified.
He wanted to tell her that he'd noticed how light it seemed in her hand as she'd pretended to sip it, and he already knew that she was only doing that so that she might not be asked to either buy something else or leave.
"I just had the thought," he smiled, "I don't know how you take your coffee, but I've got a regular one for you and this croissant too, if you're hungry."
"Oh, no, " Joss shook her head with a smile as she said the lie, "I really couldn't."
The smile didn't waver. "Yes you could, I think, "he said as he pushed the croissant across in its little paper bag with a napkin on the top. "Aren't you going to tell me your name?"
"Joss," she smiled, a little uncertainly as he watched her eyes flit to the croissant momentarily. She couldn't help it and he knew it.
"Joss?" Moreth asked, twisting his head just a little with his smile going somewhere farther into friendly as he reached for one of the cups of coffee and pulled it out of the paper tray carefully while his other hand reached into his pouch.
"Well, it's Jocelyn," she said, wondering how he'd managed to get her real first name out of her when she'd really meant to give him something like Suzanne. Her stomach won out and she accepted the croissant. He knew that she would, and it told him that she likely hadn't eaten a full meal in a while. When he slid the cup across the table to her there was more than the cup in his hand.
"Um, please, "she hesitated, "I mean,... thank you for this, but , ... what I mean to say is, ..."
His smile almost disappeared, though it didn't quite leave altogether. It just grew a little softer, "Just take the coffee and we can think about it for a minute, Jocelyn, ok?"
She wondered if maybe he didn't like her enough for it, but the smile reappeared.
"Just take the coffee."
She reached for it and he saw her eyes open a little wider as her fingers felt both the top edge of his thumb as well as what he held against the cup under that thumb. She pulled the cup toward her and then she saw the twenty dollar bill there.
