It's going well at first. She picks up presents for her sisters at Bath and Body Works, ducks into GameStop for gift certificates for her younger brothers. She is heading over to Restoration Hardware to get something for her parents when she passes the soft pretzel stand and the smell grabs her and all but bodily drags her over.
She's a nursing mother, okay? If she doesn't eat those five hundred extra calories every single day, her body decides it's starving and she ends up eating way more than she should. Even with all the solids Lourdes is now eating in addition to her milk. It never fails.
Feeling only the slightest bit of guilt, she takes her pretzel and a container of cheese sauce to a table at the edge of the food court, setting her bags by her feet. She is halfway through her snack when suddenly she feels a prickle on the back of her neck, as if someone were watching her from afar. She turns in her chair and when her eyes sweep over familiar blond hair and warm brown eyes, she feels her heart stop in her chest and stay stopped.
Jeff.
He is staring at her as if she were an apparition he couldn't quite believe, eyes wide with shock. They stare with eyes locked across the food court for several beats until finally he rises from his table, ignoring the food still on it and walks slowly over to hers. He pauses hesitantly a few feet from her, as if she were going to get up and run if he comes too close.
"Mari?"
Even with the time and distance between them, she'd never forgotten his voice. Now it washes over her, swamping her with an unmistakable longing she couldn't quite quell. She feels tears trying to spring up and she blinks them back quickly.
"Jeff."
She is proud that her voice doesn't break just then, swallowing against the lump that rises. She gestures wordlessly to the chair across from her, indicating he should sit.
As he lowers himself into the chair, his eyes still locked on hers, she is suddenly very aware of the weight she'd put on, how she'd not bothered to do anything with her hair before leaving the house. She is wearing torn jeans and a sweatshirt that had seen better days, and not a single smattering of makeup. Jeff had seen her at much worse, yes, but there's something so much more open and vulnerable about this particular moment.
"Hey," he says gently, a tentative smile spreading over his lips the longer he watches her face. "Long time no see, Tinkerbell."
A laugh bubbles forth of its own will, and she pushes a hand through her hair shyly. "Now where have I heard that before?" she smiles back at him, and that seems to break the ice because Jeff laughs as well.