Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop

Kate wasn't sure how she made it through dinner. She made stovetop mac-and-cheese, something that required minimal thought. As they sat on the couch, large ceramic bowls warming their laps, Al explained between mouthfuls of macaroni shaped like Disney princesses.

"He picked me up in the limo." Al was concentrating on finding a crown in the bowl, poking around with the rounded tip of her spoon. "He said dinner was a date. I said 'yes'." Little orange tiara found, she looked up. "Was that wrong?"

Was it?

The night in the coffee shop, just her and Castle, had been nice. More than nice. Somehow, in barely three months, this man got her. No bouquets of flowers that would wilt in a week. Not a dinner at a fancy French restaurant with entrees she couldn't pronounce.

Instead, he had honed in on her addiction to caffeine. He somehow had finagled a way to completely empty the coffee shop; how, Kate hadn't quite figured out and she sensed that Castle wouldn't share his sources. Then, as if a first date over coffee wasn't perfectly unique enough, he had gone and decided that dinner would be cupcakes. Close-to-heavenly cupcakes that were still sitting on the counter under Saran wrap on the paper plates from the shop.

"No, kid." Kate brushed her fingertips over Al's cheek. "You said what you thought. That's what's right."

The girl appeared comforted, grinning widely. "Good." Kate had a moment of quiet as she scooped up the mac-and-cheese before "Mom?"

"Yeah?" she asked around the mouthful of pasta and cheese.

"Do you like Rick?"

Oh, the question of the hour. Of the night. No, the year. Kate knew that if she thought about the response, went through the possibilities, she'd be here for a long time. So she answered without thinking. "Yes. I do."

Al wrapped her arms around Kate's torso, her cheek pressed to her mother's stomach. Kate managed to move her bowl before Al's hair dangled into the food. "I like him, too."

They finished up dinner and Kate gathered up their dishes to soak in the sink before washing them out. Al had spent the entire time bouncing on her toes, eyes trained solely on the cupcakes. Kate had promised she could have one if she finished dinner and her homework. The girl had flown through the practice printing her alphabet faster than Kate had ever seen, putting the worksheet into the bright purple folder in her backpack, then taking up her position at the corner of the counter.

Kate had lowered the plate of cupcakes down so that Al could pluck off a chocolate one, not waiting for a plate to catch the crumbs before biting into the cake. Frosting smeared onto Al's nose as she skipped back to the couch to finish eating the dessert. Kate picked out another chocolate cupcake, taking the bottom of the cupcake off and making a sandwich with the frosting.

Once Al had declared the cupcake 'the best in the world,' Kate had insisted that she go to bed. School in the morning and Kate may have promised that they'd go visit Castle after school if she was good.

So now Al was asleep, oblivious to her mother's conflicting emotions regard the previous night. She was in her pajamas, knees drawn up to her chest with her phone resting on the bedspread by her toes. Before she could just curl up under the blankets and forget about Al's admission.

But she couldn't.

Kate leaned forward and picked up the phone, scrolled through the contacts, and hit the call button.

"What?"

Lanie didn't sound happy. A glance at the clock explained that. Her friend had been working a double shift and was probably just getting to sleep. Kate needed her though; it was an emergency.

"He asked her for permission."

"You're going to need to give me some context here, sweetie. It's late. I'm tired."

Kate sighed, letting her forehead rest on her kneecaps. "Castle. He asked Al for permission to take me out to dinner."

That woke Lanie up. "He what?"

"Pretty much my reaction as well," she muttered. "I mean, what do I do with that?"

"You give your daughter a hug and then buy her a pony." As if Lanie could sense the glare Kate was shooting through the phone. "That's sweet, is what that is. The fact he had the thought to ask Al if he could take you out, that's something no one else has done."

That much was true. "But that's because there hasn't been anyone else…"

"Exactly. So that he went out of his way to ask the only other person you would have thought of if this goes any further is an indication that he could be-"

"Don't say 'the one' like it's a mythical being," Kate sighed, pulling a chunk of her hair in front of her eyes to search for dead ends. The thought that there was a single person for her scared her. The thought that Richard Castle was her 'one' was absolutely terrifying.

"Alright, alright. So tell me about the date," Lanie said. She still sounded tired but Kate was sure that the excitement of getting the juicy details of her night out would keep her up for the next few minutes.

Kate smiled, stretching out so that her head was at the wrong end of the bed, her chin resting in one of her hands. The heels of her feet swung arcs in the air, hitting her thighs every few times. God, just like a high schooler again. But she didn't shift because the emotion was the same as it had been as a high school student. "He picked me up in a town car."

"A limo?"

"What are you? Al? No, just a black car. Do you want me to tell this story or not?" Lanie was silent. "Good. So, he picked me up. Once we were in the car, he blindfolded me, said that the location was a surprise and he didn't want me to cheat." Kate paused, waiting for a comment from her friend but Lanie obviously had learned her lesson about keeping quiet. "Lanie, he brought me to our coffee shop."

"Marry him."

Kate sat up, nearly falling off the bed but catching herself on the comforter. The phone tumbled out of her hand, clattering to the floor. She let Lanie call out her name as she took deep breaths. Marry Castle? After a single date and three months of knowing the man and Lanie was suggesting that she hit the aisle right now? The idea of marriage never scared her until now. Breathing steadier, she fumbled under the bed for her phone, brought it back up to her ear.

"You going to get the marriage license or are you still there, girl?"

"No, I'm here. Anyway," she said, drawing the word out, hoping that Lanie would forget about the earlier mention of weddings, "he had someone gotten the entire shop to himself for the night. We had coffee and cupcakes."

"Cupcakes? Oh, Kate, he's a keeper. Hold onto him." Lanie yawned and Kate could hear her jaw crack. "Listen, sweetie, I need to sleep but answer me one more question. Kiss goodnight?"

"Yes," she said on a gentle exhale. If she closed her eyes, Kate could almost feel his lips on hers again, a quiet ghost lingering on the skin. "Good night, Lanie."

Kate heard Lanie's mumbled response before she hung up. She flopped back onto the pillows, a smile crossing her face briefly before she started over-thinking. Typical move on her part.

Did Lanie have a point? She hadn't gone on a date since Al was born; she hadn't had time while raising a newborn on her own and after the incident that had lead to little Al, Kate had secured her heart behind a few walls reinforced with steel beams. But Castle was different. He hadn't pushed, hadn't tried to get past those barriers.

He just did. And only after three months. Ninety days.

What really scared Kate was that she didn't think she wanted him back on the other side of those walls.