Chapter/Scene 5 - Diane's Coffeehouse; evidence is brought forth.

Phoebe walked into the coffeehouse on Main street and breathed in the auroma of coffee beans. She looked around the room, no sign of Cole yet. She went over to the counter and waited for the woman to return.
"Good afternoon, what can I get for you today?" the woman said cheerfully.
Phoebe Smiled. "I'll have a vente mocha latte and uh.. maybe one of those biscotti's."
"Coming right up, that'll be $6.75 please," the woman turned and grabbed a biscotti as the latte was getting fixed. Phoebe handed her the money, got her coffee and went and sat at a table in the far corner. She sighed now and opened the box she had brought with her, inside were pictures of her and Cole. One of which was a picture of them in their wedding attire from the day after they'd gotten married. She had - of course - insisted upon getting a picture together in their outfits. She moved the pictures and starred down at the ring that was inside the box, along side it was the letter he had written her the first time he'd been vanquished. She shook her head, couldn't show him that. She picked up the pictures again and flipped through them. Her and Cole on the beach in winter during the time Prue was alive.. things were different then, Phoebe thought. She looked at another picture, her and Cole on the floor in the attic sitting and flirting. Piper had taken the picture on a whim because she'd expected to catch Paige summoning Patty and wanted a shot of the two of them together, it had been Phoebe and Cole. His expression in the picture was shock and humor. She smiled, laughed a little. The sound of a man clearing his throat interrupted her thoughts and she came back to reality to notice Cole standing infront of her.
"C-Cole! Oh, uh.. hi! Err.. where's... Melanie?" she asked, putting the pictures in a neat pile together face-down.
"I uh.. asked her to stay at the apartment," he replied.
"Oh. Well, umm.. coffee?"
"No, thank you Ms. Halli-" he started to say.
"Phoebe," she sounded annoyed and amused.
"Phoebe."
"Um.. so.. you want to just..?"
"Please," he said, glancing down at the box infront of her.
"Oh-kay," she said, she felt disappointed and handed the pile of pictures over to him.
He turned them face-up and was met instantly with a picture of Phoebe and him hugging one another at Christmas. He was wearing a sweater she'd bought him, a tag accidentally still left on it, and she was showing off her necklace that he was oh-so playfully reaching for.
He sucked in a breath, let it out, and Phoebe found herself holding hers and forced herself to breath as well. He flipped through all the pictures, each time looking more and more intruiged and at the same time, confused.
"Well.. I guess it's true what they say," he replied. She looked at him waiting for him to continue. "A picture really is worth a thousand words."
She smiled slightly. "There's many more than that.."
"Well, ah, I.. I don't know what to tell you Ms-uh, Phoebe."
"Well, would you like to see more or .. do you basically.." her sentence trailed off.
"You wouldn't by any chance happen to have a copy of the divorce papers, would you?"
"Of course, uh..." she rummaged through her box and pulled out the only copy she'd had left and handed it to him. "There."
"Thank you," he read it and flipped through it carefully. "So, why did you issue a divorce? You seemed.. happy to see me... yet.. if you were happy..."
"Well.. at the time.. you had gone through a really.. dark period. It had gotten to be rather .. unnerving for me and my sisters to be around you," she explained, careful not to mention witchcraft or demonic arts.
"I'm so sorry, but, I've calmed from that.. haven't I?"
"It appears so. If it were like this before you ...disappeared... well, I think we could've made it work," she said. Her heart hurt, she wanted him so much to know her.
"You and I.." he looked down at the Christmas picture again. "We seemed so inlove."
"It was the kind of love most would assume a myth," she agreed, she felt light-headed at the mention of "we" and "you and I" from him.
"Were things.. always like it was in this picture?"
"Right up until the dark period became apparent," she reluctantly said.
"Where had I gone, do you know?"
"Not really.. at the time I was so angry with you for having gone to such a dark place that it didn't even occur to me to wonder. For all I cared you could've gone to hell," she admitted this with a apologetic smile and slight-laugh at the end.
"Well, thanks for the honesty Phoebe," he said, grinning his devilish grin.
Her heart skipped a beat. He did it on his own, she thought. He called me Phoebe. "Absolutely no problem, Cole."
"When did we meet?"
"Huh?" her mind had slipped into memories of them.
"Do you remember the day we met?"
"Oh! Yeah, it was about 5 years ago while you were working as an ADA. You had been getting facts about a murder case, and, as luck would have it, I was a lead witness," she remembered that day clearly, she smiled to herself.
"And the day I proposed?"
"Which time?" She laughed softly.
"You turned me down?" His eyebrows went up.
"Well, not techincally.. I didn't like how you proposed the first time. It was a 'caught-in-the-moment' sort of thing, and you hadn't truly meant it," she said, remembering the vanquish of the demon, green slime and her landing on him.
"Well, what about the second time?"
"The second time.. I didn't answer your question. I just felt it wasn't the right time for us to think about it."
"So .. how many times did it take?"
"Third times the Charm..." she thought about how ironic that was. Third time, three Charmed ones, the charm was definitely on then.
"It took three times? So, how'd the third go?"
"Well, you had gotten shot... I was so terrified of losing you that I -" she was cut off.
"I was shot? By who.. why?" He seemed intruiged.
"Yes, you were shot. It was by Detective Morris, he uh.. thought you were someone else, and accidentally shot you," she hadn't necessarily lied, she thought. He was Frankie at the time.
"I lived a rather dangerous and dark life, didn't I?"
"Absolutely."
"So, please, tell me about the rest of the third proposal."
"Well..I was afraid of losing you, and I was so upset with myself that I hadn't accepted your proposal when we both loved one another. So after you were all fixed up and no longer bleeding or on the verge of dying.. I told you to ask me again, you did, and I said yes," she smiled at the thought.
"So when did we get married? Right away?"
"Actually.. it was more like ... at the end of the season when a new one was coming, winter."
He looked at the picture of their wedding outfits now. "You've always looked beautiful, Phoebe," he turned red as he said it. He was with Melanie Bishop now, afterall.
"And you've always been handsome, Cole," she lowered her eyes. God, I want him, she thought. He cleared his throat. "Ehm. Thank you. Uh.." his pager went off. "Oh! Perhaps we could finish this another time Phoebe? Go over memories and see if anything sparks my own memory?"
"Oh.. uh.. sure.. when and where?"
"Well, perhaps I could meet your family again? See if I remember any of them..." he pushed the silence button on his pager and off it went again. He looked irritated. "Damnit, you think she'd just-" he stopped. He couldn't tell Phoebe anything negative about Melanie.
"M-My family? Oh.. uh.. sure. How's tomorrow?"
"Ah.. maybe we could do it tonight? Tomorrow.. well.. I'm out of town tomorrow with Melanie and.." he stammered for words. He felt nervouse talking to Phoebe about Melanie, because as much as he loved her.. something about her was very off-putting.
"Tonight? Uh.." she picked up her phone and smiled at him. "One second." She held up her index finger then speed-dialed Piper.
"Hello?" Piper's voice rang out from over the phone.
"Piper! Hi! Listen.. I know it's rather short notice.. but ah.. I was wondering.. do you think there'd be room at dinner for two more?"
"Uh, actually Phoebe.." He started.
"Just a second Piper. Yes?"
"Just one. Melanie won't be joining us," he muttered.
"Oh. Make that, one more instead of two. Can it be done?"
"Was that a man's voice? Do you have a date?" Piper sounded excited.
"Don't worry about that, can it be done?"
"Absolutely Phoebe, you bring him on over and everything will be fine," she said cheerfully.
"Uhh.. great. Listen, get my photo album out, will ya?" She looked into Cole's eyes as they watched her and she felt a chill run through her body.
"Sure, but what for?"
"I just want to use it later on... before dinner."
"Okay Phoebe, so what time will your date be here?"
"Uh..." Phoebe said.
"Tell her 7, if that's okay," Cole said.
Phoebe blushed, realizing he could hear Piper. "Um.. 7 if that's okay?"
"It's fine, so who is he? No, don't tell me about it just yet, I have to get cooking! I'll see you at home Phoebe," Piper said.
"Uh.. sure Piper. Bye!" Phoebe blurted the last word awkwardly embarrassed and hung up.
Cole smiled.
"You didn't by any chance just happen to hear.." her setence trailed off.
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"I didn't mean for her to think it was.. I mean, because it's not! It's just..."
"It's not..."
"Yeah."
"Really.." he sounded disappointed.
"I mean, you know, unless.. it is?" She lowered her eyes again.
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"Uh-huh."
"You're sure?"
"Yep."
"What about.."
"Don't worry about it."
"I don't want to make her mad at you," Phoebe said just as his pager went off again.
"Trust me, it'll be my fault. Besides, she's mad at me already," he turned the pager off.
Phoebe smiled. "So.. seven?"
"Seven. I-"
"Have to go, I know."
"Yeah."
"Melanie..."
"Yes."
"Okay."
"It'll be fine. She won't know."
"But she's your-"
"Nevermind the title. We're not married or anything."
"But-"
"Keeping secrets while you're married is the sin, Phoebe, not while you're courting the girl."
"Okay."
"Seven O'clock then, where's your house?"
She smiled.