I know these chapters seem to be getting shorter and shorter, but I can promise you, the next one will be very long. I think. Or at least, longer than the past couple chapters have been.

I don't have much to say about this one. Probably because of it's brevity, haha.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

x x x

Chapter five

It wasn't like the two of them had gotten into a fight, exactly, but now things definitely felt different between Carl and Katie, at least for Carl.

Joe came again on Monday, during Katie's lunch break, and Wednesday Carl had to hear all about how she and Joe had gone to the inn for lunch with her old friends from Sugar Valley, Gwen and Kurt and Bob.

By the time five o'clock rolled around, things were grinding to a halt, customer-wise. Carl and Katie sat across from one another at one of the tables.

"Yuck, these cookies taste disgusting," Katie said, reaching for another. She was eating from a tray of cookies that Carl had burned by accident that morning.

"I don't know why you insist on eating them. I said you could throw them away." He tried not to sound so snappish, but his patience was wearing thin. It truly bothered him to no end, hearing about how all the fun she'd had with Joe and the others. He should've been glad for her, of course—she hadn't said a word about time travel since the fireworks festival. It was as though she were improving; she no longer got that lost look that loomed over her person from time to time. But even that, the fact that she was getting better, bothered him in a way he couldn't put his finger on.

Katie chewed thoughtfully on the cookie and then, after swallowing, declared, "You've been in a sour mood all morning."

"Who, me?"

"Yes, you."

"I'm not. I'm fine. Nothing's wrong."

"But are you?" Yet another scorched sweet popped into her mouth.

"Am I what?" He grew tired of her questions.

"Are you fine?"

"Of course I am."

Katie pressed her lips together, clearly not believing him, but that was when the door jangled and swung open to reveal Ellen.

Carl got to his feet out of habit—it was something his father had taught him, to stand when a woman entered the room. But he didn't walk over to greet her. Surprise had him rooted to the spot, and so she came to him.

"Carl…" she began, and as if she'd just then noticed Katie's presence, she turned to address her as well. Her smile was tight, Carl noted. "Oh, hello. Your name is Katie, right?"

Katie nodded, her mouth open slightly as she surveyed Ellen.

"I'm Ellen," she said hesitantly, when she got no audible response from Katie.

Carl wondered how Ellen had known Katie's name. She hadn't set foot inside the café since their break-up, but he figured that word had spread somehow. He hoped no one was talking about what had gone on at the fireworks festival.

"Ellen," Carl said, his voice sounding strange, not the way he wanted it to sound when he was talking to his ex. Weak, almost. "Is there something…?" He trailed off, unsure of how to word the question.

"It's…I wanted to talk to you." Her eyes flickered nervously over to Katie. "About a…private matter."

Carl nodded, turning to Katie now. "Of course, of course. Katie?"

She still kept looking at Ellen. "Yeah?"

"You can have the rest of the night off, all right?"

Now she was looking at him, a frown brewing. "But, there's still an hour before—"

"It's fine, Katie. Go ahead."

"But you'll have to close by yourself—"

"It's fine, Katie," he said again, much more firmly this time.

She looked affronted, but got to her feet. As an afterthought, she grabbed the cookie tray. "I'm taking these. I'll bring the tray back tomorrow."

"Okay. See you then," Carl said, rubbing his temples in exhaustion. Katie stalked out, eating another cookie on her way.

As soon as the door was shut, Carl expected Ellen to start talking, but she didn't, so Carl took charge. "Please, sit down," he said, pulling out the chair next to him.

"Thank you," Ellen replied, taking the seat. Carl sat down after her. "You were always a gentleman, Carl."

"I still am, I hope," he answered, and they both chuckled uncomfortably.

"She seems like an interesting person," Ellen said with an air of delicacy.

"She is."

"I heard that something happened at the fireworks festival. Is she okay?"

"Yes, she is."

"And are you okay?"

"Why is everyone been asking me that lately?" he asked, but quickly realized how touchy his tone sounded by the look on Ellen's face. He attempted to cover it up with a strained laugh. "Sorry, I don't mean to sound annoyed."

"Well…are you? Are you okay?"

"Yes, of course." He wondered what she meant by asking the question, what she had expected the answer to be. Maybe she thought he'd be devastated by their break-up, though really, wasn't that the whole reason she'd broken up with him in the first place? Because he hadn't cared enough?

"You're being so short with me, Carl." She smiled humorlessly. "I hope I'm not upsetting you."

"I'm just curious, I suppose, about why you came here."

Ellen's eyes widened and she laughed out of nervousness. "You never used to be that direct with me, Carl."

It bothered him, what she said, but at the same time, he couldn't deny it. She knew him well, and that meant she knew he was always one to beat around the bush. Maybe just being around Katie, who always knew how to cut through the bullshit, had changed some core part of him without him even noticing.

He didn't answer her, which prompted her to speak again. "I do I owe you an explanation. I've been thinking about…about how it ended."

"You ended it," he specified, not without a little bitterness.

"Right," she said, cringing slightly before she gave her nod of acknowledgment. "I…I couldn't get it—what I did—out of my mind." She paused and then suddenly blurted, "Is that how it's been for you, too? Have you been thinking about what happened?"

She looked so hopeful, and it wasn't in his interest to hurt her, despite what had happened. It never had been. "I…I guess, yeah."

This seemed to encourage her, and she talked faster now, with more assurance. "I was wrong, Carl. You're a sweet man. This café—it's your dream. It'll always come first. I can't expect to compete."

"Ellen, it shouldn't be about competing…" Her words, and the tenderness with which she said them, touched him, but she stopped him before she could say more.

"I can't deny that I felt neglected. In the beginning, you charmed me. But then I realized you were like that with all of your customers. I wasn't special." She lowered her eyes then, and the small gesture filled him with pity.

"But you were, Ellen," he said without thinking. He was starting to have trouble telling if he was merely comforting her, or if he actually meant what he was saying. "You were special. I loved you."

Her face went slack and her eyes quickly met his once more. "You…you never told me that."

Carl swallowed and scratched his head, dropping his gaze to his shoes. "Well, maybe I should have."

They were silent for a long time after that, and Carl spent it going over what just happened. He sensed that Ellen wasn't finished, that she hadn't yet revealed her true reason for coming, but that she was about to.

He also couldn't believe the things he was saying—and moreover, how it didn't feel like he was lying, not exactly anyway.

"Carl, I came here to ask if you wanted to try again," Ellen finally said, breaking the silence.

Suddenly something deep inside of him ached, and that ache inexplicably made him think of Katie. Katie, and Joe, and that untamable anger he felt every time he saw them together, along with the childish foolishness. The foolishness that made him want to say yes to Ellen, yes to trying again, just to see the look on Katie's face when she found out. To see if it would make Katie feel any of the anger he'd felt about her and Joe.

But he didn't say yes.

"I don't think it's a good idea," he answered honestly. "Right now, I'm not so good at being a boyfriend. Not with the café, and everything else." Whatever everything else was.

"I could wait," Ellen said, and Carl cleared his throat, stalling his answer. She took the hint. "But you don't want me to."

"I think we should be friends," he told her, daring to smile. "And then we'll see."

"And then we'll see," Ellen said, echoing his words and his smile. "Okay. I can do that."

They both rose to their feet, and Carl walked her to the door, holding it open for her. She hesitated in the threshold.

"Carl?" She reached out abruptly and cupped his face with one hand.

"Yes?" He stood perfectly still, feeling her warm fingers on his own warm cheek.

"I loved you, too."

x x x

The jingling of the bell on the door as it shut behind Ellen still rung in Carl's ears long after, while he lay in bed that night. He hadn't said anything else to her, just watched her go.

Even the next morning, his thoughts still haunted him. It was like he was finally having the reaction he was supposed to have had when Ellen originally broke up with him. He couldn't stop thinking about it, just like she'd said.

"You're awfully quiet today," Katie said later that morning, after the breakfast crowd departed.

"Oh, I hope you're not going to start bothering me with that again," he responded, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I wasn't planning on bothering you," she huffed, obviously wounded. He sighed and backpedaled.

"Look, I've just got things on my mind lately, okay? I'm sorry if it makes me act differently."

"Is it because of that woman who came to see you yesterday?" Carl looked at Katie to find her twisting the end of her ponytail in her fingers, absorbed in her fidgeting.

"No," he said guardedly, not wanting to get into it with her.

"Who was she?"

"Someone I know."

"I thought you didn't have a girlfriend."

"I don't," he said sharply.

"Then…?" She dropped her hair and stared at him with her far too blue eyes.

"Ex," he finally conceded. "Ellen is my ex-girlfriend. We broke up."

"Really?" Katie said with a gasp, her eyebrows shooting upward. "When? I mean—um, you don't have to tell me."

"Ah, whatever, it's fine. It was…" He trailed off, trying to remember. "Oh. It was the day you applied, actually. It happened just before you showed up."

"Interesting," she mused, as though she were actually going to file away this information for some useful purpose. Carl resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. "So now you two are back together?"

"No, we're not."

"But she wants to."

"You're asking an awful lot of questions."

"Well, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she does."

"Do you?"

Carl exhaled and pressed a hand to his forehead with his eyes shut. "I don't know, Katie, I don't know. I told her we'll see. Now if you'll keep your nose out of my personal life…"

"Okay, okay, jeez." Katie sulked away to get the broom, and added as a breezy afterthought over her shoulder, "Joe asked me to the moon-viewing festival, by the way."

"Really?" Carl said as she came back. "It's a bit early for that, huh? The moon-viewing festival isn't for another two weeks."

"Well, he wants to take me, so…" She didn't say anything else as she started to sweep.

"So, does that mean you're going?"

"Now who's being nosy?"

"You're the one who volunteered the information."

"Hmph. Well, yes, it does mean I'm going. I told him yes." She seemed to be waiting for something, something Carl didn't want to give to her.

"I hope you two kids have a nice time," Carl said, and Katie stuck her tongue out at him.

x x x