Hermione looked around the café nervously and glanced back down at her phone, lying on the table top. 5:45 pm.
He was late. He told her to meet him here at Miriam's café by 5:30. She had even left work early enough to get down to this area. She had to get on the tube to do so and she barely made it by 5:30.
Now he's not here.
She thought about the possibility of him not showing up at all.
She didn't know what possessed her to text him after the double dating disaster. She was curious.
Curiosity killed the cat, and it definitely was doing a number on Hermione.
She wanted to know what he wanted to say to her that he couldn't tell her in front of his fiancée and her brother. Why, he had to be so sneaky about it and slip her a note.
He told her where to meet him. He picked a place that Hermione had never gone to. Never thought of going to. Café and Coffee houses weren't really her style. She was a buy a pack of coffee beans and grind them in the grocery store so you can make them in her own coffee maker. She was a grab a dozen pastries for three pounds breadbox at the supermarket and store them in her, so she had breakfast for a week and a half.
Hermione minded her money. Some called her stingy. She rather thought of herself as thrifty. She valued everything she earned. Her hard-earned money wasn't meant to be thrown around all Willy Nilly. She had to have a purpose to spend it.
She looked down at her cup of Americano that sat before her. She took a sip of it. The coffee was growing cold.
She looked down at her phone again. There were no texts or missed calls from Draco.
He had stood her up, she thought. This is all part of his cruel plan, she thought to herself. Make her think that he wanted her to forgive him. It was all a cruel joke. Again, after ten years. He was still being cruel to her.
She needed to get going. Her dog, Fathy, needed to be let out soon.
She took a long gulp of her drink. She was not going to let the overpriced coffee drink go to waste.
She stood up, flung her purse over her shoulder and started walking towards the door.
She was looking down as she shoved her phone into the purse. She felt herself running into something solid. Something warm.
"Granger..Hermione", a deep low voice looming from above er stated.
Hermione took a step back and looked into his icey grey eyes. Those eyes that seemed to see deep inside her thoughts. She blinked several times before finding her voice.
"Draco. I didn't think you'd come. I was about to leave. I need to get back to my flat to let out my dog.
Draco cleared his throat and gave her a half smile. "Uhh that's fine, how about I walk with you at least to your bus stop.
Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to blatantly show her annoyance with him. It was getting dark and she just wanted to get back.
" I've been thinking about saying this to you since we ran into each other in the supermarket. I would like to get to know you. I want to make a fresh start. I realize I was a twat to you but I've made changes to better myself. I've grown and realized the error of my ways.", he pleased. His hands were buried in his black trousers pockets. He was staring intently into her eyes.
Hermione glared at him and bit her lip. "Who do you really want to forgive you, me or yourself", she asked.
Draco's eyebrows raised questioningly and he looked at her questioningly. He licked his lower lip.
Hermione studied his face. He looked nervous. He had a sheen of sweat covering his face and neck. He was chewing on his bottom lip.
"I want you to forgive me, I was a complete immature cad to you . You were nothing short of an angel for putting up with adolescent me. I didn't know how to express my feelings. I said crap that was completely out of line. I don't blame you for hating me Hermione but more than anything I'd like to earn your forgiveness.", he pleaded.
Hermione scrunched up her face at him and turned away from him in disdain "Calling yourself names does not erase the past Draco. I don't think you realized the impact your words had on me back then. I hated myself because you made me feel small. Like a nobody. I would come home n tears, which I had to wipe away before I stepped into my house. I had to pretend that I was ok to my parents and to my friends. I had to pretend that I was a lot stronger than I really was. You made me feel weak", she spat out.
She was now turning to him as she arrived at her bus stop. She had her hands on her hips and just stared him down.
"I'm sorry..I didn't mean to make you feel…", Draco started to say before Hermione cut him off.
"You didn't mean to make me feel what? Less human? I wasn't good enough because I was a muggle born witch. No matter how well I did in potions or spells classes, you had to constantly remind me that I wasn't good enough to be there, at Hogwarts among wizard royalty such as yourself", she yelled. She didn't really care who heard her yelling at Draco.
It felt good, to let him have it. After all of these years. To get the anger, the resentment and the past tears she had shed because of him off of her chest.
"I just don't understand why after all of these years, a whole decade has past and now you are begging for my forgiveness? It boggles my mind", she tells him.
Draco's eyebrows jerked up. "Seeing you again was a sign for me to be a better man, to make amends. Please let me show you that I am a better version of the snot nose, dreadful wizard that you met at school.", he begged.
The bus pulled up to the curb.
A million thoughts ran through Hermione's head. All of the rational thoughts on why accepting his offer was a bad idea. Spending time with him again was a even worse idea.
She felt pressured to make a decision as she stepped onto the stairs of the bus she shouted back to him, "There will be terms Malfoy. We're going to do things my way. You're not going to get off the hook that easily with me", she shouted as the automatic door closed shut.
She noticed a small smile forming on Draco's lips as he watched her take a seat on the bus and the bus drove away from him.
He texted her an address later that night and asked her to meet him there in three days. Three days was a Friday evening.
When Hermione googled the address she learned that it was a bakery. She thought that was so strange that he wanted her to meet him at a bakery of all places.
She arrived at the bakery a little earlier than was expected and went inside to admire all of the baked goods.
There were cases full of baked good, despite it being evening, there were still some nice selections such as cupcakes, cookies and other pastries.
On display in the front window were gorgeous multi layer cakes for every occasion. There were beautiful, white frosted wedding cakes with delicate roses creeping up the sides of each layer before being splayed out on the top layer and colorful balloons adorning birthday cakes.
Hermione had created a Pinterest board with wedding ideas during the brief period she thought she was in a serious relationship with a man that hadn't taken the relationship as serious as she thought he had. She found out that he did have wedding plans, it just wasn't with her. He had broken up with her, telling her "they were headed in two different directions in life" and three months later his engagement to another woman was announced in the papers.
She later deleted any reference to a wedding on Pinterest as she didn't want to be reminded of her failure in the romance department.
Seeing all of the wedding cakes wasn't helping her feelings of disappointment.
Draco breezed in the door exactly at 6 pm. He was wearing a nice grey pinstriped. He walked close to her and hugged her, drawing her body close to his She could feel the warmth radiating off of him. Her head rested in the crook of his neck for a moment and she breathed his scent in. He smelled nice, like soap and aftershave.
He kissed her cheek. His lips felt soft and left Hermione's cheek tingling.
"Thank you for meeting me here" he greeted her.
Hermione pulled away from his embrace.
"Why are we here?", she asked, her voice tinged with confusion.
Draco grinned her "For cake tasting of course".
Hermione's jaw dropped. "Shouldn't you be doing that together with your. Fiancée", she said, emphasizing the word 'fiancée'.
Draco grabbed Hermione's hand to drag her into the back where the cake tasting would be held as the bakery owner called Draco's name.
"Come on now, Giselle is too busy with work to come. I need a woman's
Hermione rolled her eyes. She thought that she had set boundaries with Draco when she had laid out her terms of forgiving her when they had tested during the week. She told him that she would spend more time with him to get reacquainted with 'the new Draco' but she refused to do anything uncomfortable or that crossed a line.
Cake tasting for Draco's upcoming nuptials was definitely something that she didn't expect to be doing. However, there she was, watching as multiple flavors of cakes were laid out in front of her.
Draco already had a fork slicing into a piece of strawberry cake with white fondant icing.
"You seriously trust my judgement on this? What if I tell you I like a flavor that Giselle will hate?", she asked in dismay.
Draco patted her on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it. She's not picky at all. She'll agree to anything that is selected as long as its not something completely off the wall. I don't even think this bakery sells anything but the average wedding cake flavors. She's the one that selected the bakery.".
Hermione bit into a piece of the German Chocolate cake with white chocolate frosting, "Mmm, this one is absolutely delicious. I'm not sure if anything else will top this one", she declared, licking the frosting that was on her bottom lf lip.
Draco stared at her for a moment and then broke out in a smile. "Ok I'll taste it too", he said as he took a small bite of the cake.
"Oh you are right, this is quite good. Now see, that's why I needed you to come along with me. I know you have refined tastes. I remember when we would sit at the same table in the dining hall at school, you always selected the best tasting foods to eat. Whereas I was just always so hungry, I would eat almost everything that was set out in front of me.", he reminisced.
After another half an hour of nibbling small bites of various flavors of cakes, Draco was deadest on the German chocolate one that Hermione had picked.
When they got up, he gave her another tight squeeze and peck on the cheek before she caught a taxi to get home.
She collapsed on her bed with her clothes and coat still on, kicked off her black pumps and closed her eyes. Reflecting back on the day, she definitely couldn't say that her night wasn't exciting. She had enjoyed herself much more than the double date, where she was paired up with Samuel who didn't seem interested in her at all.
She had gotten to see Draco smile at her, kiss and hug her. She didn't know really what to think about his actions towards her. He hadn't yet earned her complete forgiveness but he was getting there.