Part One

Rae loved her café. It was her haven, something that she'd always secretly wanted but never actually thought she'd ever do. Yet, another relationship ending with yet another prick coinciding with an unexpected redundancy package from her boring office job made her jump up and take the chance.

"It should have flowery tea cups and floral curtains and gorgeous white tiles!" Izzy had gushed when Rae had told her friends about her plan.

"No," Rae had replied firmly, "It won't be a girly café."

She'd remained true to her word; 'Champagne Supernova' had been born, and the swirly lettered logo hung proudly above the café door. The walls inside were a light charcoal grey and the feature wall at the back was black with white horizontal thin strips heading down it. Her favourite thing about the café was the wooden shelves that lined the wall next to the door. As the door opened, tinkling and signalling that somebody had arrived, nine times out of ten she would turn around to find them staring with interest at the lines of records that filled them, all filed under the correct genre of music.

"No crap reggae" she had whispered to herself as she had stared at them for the first time.

There was a 1990s juke box hiding away in the corner, it was one that had been gathering dust outside an old pub and she'd repurposed it for her café. Chop had even managed to get it working and before long the café was filled with Oasis, Blur and The Smiths all day. The tables were black as well, but the chairs were scattered around them were old armchairs that she'd found here, there and everywhere. She'd got them re-lined in rich purples, reds and greens; bold colours that made a statement.

Rae loved her café. It had been everything she had wanted and more. She was finally happy in life, finally.

But when the bell had rung that evening, drawing her attention to the visitor, everything changed. She was no longer the 30 year old woman she was proud of but instead was drawn back into the mind of that 18 year old girl she had tried to forget.

Those brown eyes…. She'd never forgotten them, they haunted her dreams every single night.

"Hi," he whispered.

"Finn," the name left her lips breathlessly.

"Long time no see."

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her heart beating ferociously in her chest.

"Came to see if you had any reggae." He replied, turning sideways to face the shelfs and fiddling absentmindedly with one of the cardboard covers.

"It's been twelve years." She whispered.

"As I said, long time no see."

"And whose fault is that?" Rae asked, fury returning to her as she stared at the back of his brown hair.

Once, his hair gathered in around his face framing his oh-so-perfect face and highlighting his oh-so-perfect eyes, but now it was cropped short; short on the sides and slightly longer on top.

He turned round as sharp as her words, eyes sparkling with teasing.

"You're the one who left." He replied curtly.

"I came back!" She yelled, "I came back and everyone welcomed me with open arms but you never turned up. You hadn't spoken to the gang in months and haven't since then! Where did you go? Why did you go? I always thought that I would come back from Uni and we'd give it another shot… we spent months writing to each other, rebuilding what we'd destroyed and then you just fucked off! Where did you go Finn?"

"I had my reason alright!" He yelled back, shoving his hands back into his jean pockets; a habit he clearly hadn't lost from his teenage years.

"Yeah and now I have my reasons for asking you to leave my café." She replied.

He stared at her for a moment and Rae wondered what was going through his mind. Slowly, he opened his mouth as if he was going to say something and shut it again. Running his fingers through his hair, his pullover rose to show a bit of a tanned, slightly hairier and slightly more toned stomach. Rae let her eyes drift there before snapping them back up to his face again.

"Leave." She whimpered, her voice betraying her as she'd hoped it'd sound forceful.

"Alright," he said, turning around and heading out the door.

Rae let out a sigh of relief, her hand holding her stomach in reassurance.

Before Finn could let the door close on him, he turned back around and looked Rae in the eyes. "See you around," he promised and disappeared into the darkness of the night.