"What are you going to have?" asked Brent once they'd sat down in the café and had a look at the menu.

"I think I'll just have a muffin" replied Catherine. "And a coffee. What about you?" The inside of the café was very warm: she took her beanie off and shook her hair loose.

"I'm starving this morning" said Brent, looking at her with a wicked gleam in his eye. "I'm gonna have the pancakes."

"Oh!" Catherine shook her head and laughed lightly. "And of course you're going to drown them in cream and maple syrup, aren't you?"

"Hey, I've got to fatten up for the winter!"

"It's so bad for you!"

Brent leaned back in his chair, grinning. "Worried I'm gonna get fat on you?"

"I'm worried you're going to have a heart attack."

"No history. Not in my family." He shook his head conclusively. "Anyway, I'm only young once."

"You're only alive once, as well."

"Precisely!"

Catherine looked at him with concern in her eyes. But she couldn't keep it: she shut her eyes and opened her mouth in a grin that quickly turned into a laugh. "Urrrrrrr!" she growled in mock frustration. "I'll make you healthy if it kills me!"

A waiter came and took their orders. When they were alone again Brent asked Catherine:

"Have I told you about my friend Mal's gig next week?"

Catherine nodded, and asked politely for a bottle of water and two glasses as the waiter passed by again.

"Are you going to come?" prompted Brent.

"I don't know . . . You know how I don't get on with your friends."

"But you never try!" Brent held up his hands to stop Catherine before she could protest. "I mean, it wouldn't be the same without you. I don't like seeing my friends, and seeing you, and not being able to do both!" He grinned boyishly. "I want to be able to show you off!" The water arrived and Catherine poured them each a glass. "Why don't you bring some of your friends as well? I've hardly met any of them. They're a part of your life as much as me."

Catherine smiled sweetly at him. "I don't care. I don't need anyone else other than you."

Brent smiled back, but a little uneasily. They'd talked about this before, about how he didn't want them to become one of those couples who excluded everybody else - but he didn't want to talk about it again, not right now, not after they'd only just patched things up. "Cathy" he said, "Just promise me you'll at least try to make it? You'll have a good time, you'll see."

Catherine pursed her lips. "Okay" she said. "I'll try. But I can't promise I'll be there. After all, you never know when something might come up." These last words were spoken with just a slight edge, as if to put Brent in his place. The food arrived and they started eating their breakfast.