Okay, it was official. I was the biggest moron on the face of the earth. Things were already awkward enough, and my freaking out when she told me she was in a car accident certainly didn't help, but then I had to go and ask her to coffee. I didn't even realize how much it sounded like I was asking her out on a date until the words were out of my mouth.
I kicked myself for being such an idiot as we walked inside and up to the counter. We both ordered hazel nut cappuccinos, which we drank in the far corner. One thought kept going through my mind as we drank.
"I'm sitting in a cafe with Sydney Bristow."
 I watched her bringing her cup to her lips to sip it as the sun light poured through the window lighting up her face, and felt a smile play at the corners of my mouth. She looked really beautiful.
"God since when did I become such a sap?"
"What?" She asked amusedly suddenly looking my way. Oh great! Busted staring at her.....wonderful. Next step sexual harassment suit.
I shook my head, "Nothing."
She didn't comment just looked back out the window. "It's really pretty here," she said.
I agreed joining her staring out the window. From the corner of my eye I saw her face fall. "What's the matter?" I asked. She shook her head.
"Syd?" I said reaching across the table to take her hand. She looked up at me hesitantly. I wondered if I should release her hand.
"It's nothing I was just thinking about holidays and how normal they are to everyone but me." she said.
"Well if you think about it is anyone's holiday really normal? Even if you're just a regular person with a regular family," I said being careful to use the word 'regular' instead of 'normal'.
"There'll always be something that will seem imperfect," I finished, rolling my eyes at myself. That was pathetic.
To my surprise she nodded her head. "I suppose," she said and then looked at me for a minute, "Vaughn do you ever wish things were different?"
"Different how?" I asked hoping my voice sounded more steady to her than it did to me.
"Well look at us now! We can't even drink coffee together without pretending we just met a couple days ago," she said, "I mean to me....I feel like you're one of my closest friends, except we don't really know each other because we can't."
I took a deep breath and regained my grip on her hand. "I know what you mean," I said trying to tell her with my eyes what I really meant.
I think she understood because she nodded slowly after a couple of minutes.

We didn't say anything after that, though the message was clear. I replayed the scene over and over again in my head to make sure I hadn't dreamed it. I decided long ago that, even if she never had the same feelings for me as I did her, I wanted to be a part of Sydney's life, and now she had practically told me that she wanted to be a part of mine also.
It was about 1 PM by then so the sun was no longer pouring in the window, but rather sitting right at the perfect level shine right in the eyes of anyone facing east, which we unfortunately were. I ignored the blinding sun for a moment to get in another momentary gaze at Sydney.
Suddenly an idea came to me. I started figuring through the details in my head as I watched Sydney stare into her coffee cup trying to avoid the sun.