John had risen early from a fitful night of bad dreams, none he could luckily remember when he woke. He showered and then dressed and went downstairs to eat breakfast. When Jennifer and he had breakfast the day before, they agreed they should meet there again on Sunday morning. John arrived at the restaurant, he excitedly scanned the faces seated at the tables but Jennifer wasn't among them. He told the Matre'D that he was expecting someone to join him shortly. After waiting twenty minutes for her he thought that maybe Jennifer had overslept or didn't want to come down to eat, he then ordered his breakfast. He had finished his breakfast and was having a third cup of coffee when he saw Jennifer come into the restaurant front door. He quickly raised his hand so that she could see him. She walked over, a serious look on her face that worried John. When she got to the table she didn't smile as she normally did. "Jennifer, I'm sorry I already ate, I figured you weren't coming. I'd be glad to sit with you while you eat though."

Jennifer still had a very serious look on her face and she replied in a very cold and distant tone, a tone he had never heard from her before. "I'm not hungry thank you. I had a call from Michael late last night and he apologized for his behavior and suggested we sit down and talk through this. I'm going to leave earlier than our original scheduled seven o'clock departure tonight. I've changed my reservation to an eleven o'clock train this morning that will put me back into Rome at about two thirty this afternoon. You can stay longer if you want, I need to go back and talk this out with Michael."

John sat speechless for a moment. He knew that eventually this would come up he had only hoped that it wouldn't come up this soon. He put on a happy face for Jennifer and smiled. "I'm happy for you, you two need to work through this and getting back early would help. Would you mind if I change my reservation to leave at the same time. It really wouldn't be much fun here without you to share it with?"

Her eyes began to well up. She tried very hard not to break down in front of him. "No, that would be fine." Her voice suddenly cracked a little under the strain of trying not to cry. "I have to go and get packed, see you later." She turned quickly as she did she put her hands up to her eyes then quickly ran out of the restaurant. Her heart was breaking, she wanted to be with John but there was still one part of her that wanted to fix things with Michael. As she walked out of the restaurant, she tried to not cry, by the time she got to the elevator doors, tears were flowing down her face.




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