“Why does the princess look sad, Daddy?” the little girl asked—then what the single dad did changed…
The Encounter at the Corner Cup Cafe
“Why does the princess look sad, Daddy?” the little girl asked.
Then, what the single dad did changed everything.
Before we continue, please tell us where in the world are you tuning in from; we love seeing how far our stories travel.
Ryan Mitchell sat at his usual corner table at the Corner Cup Cafe in downtown Austin on a Saturday morning in mid-September.
With him was his 8-year-old daughter, Emma, coloring her way through her third Princess coloring book of the month.
This was their tradition every Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
They would come here for hot chocolate and donuts and two hours of just being together.
This occurred before the rest of the weekend got busy with laundry, groceries, and all the stuff that came with being a single dad.
Ryan was pretending to check work emails on his phone, but really, he was just watching Emma color Belle’s dress yellow.
He was thinking about how his daughter looked more like her mom every single day.
It had been 4 years since his wife, Amy, died.
However, some mornings, the missing her still hit him like a punch to the chest.
The bell above the cafe door chimed, and a woman walked in who made Emma’s head snap up from her coloring book so fast Ryan thought she might get whiplash.
Emma grabbed his arm and whispered with the kind of awe usually reserved for actual royalty.
“Daddy look, a real princess just walked in.”
Ryan looked up, expecting to see maybe someone in a costume or something.
What he saw was just a woman in a beautiful floral sundress with her dark hair pulled back and heels that clicked on the tile floor.
She looked put together and professional.
Yeah, okay, she was really pretty, but definitely not an actual princess.
“That’s just a nice lady sweetheart, not a princess,” he said.
But Emma shook her head with absolute certainty.
“No Daddy, she looks exactly like Belle from my movie; she even has the same hair and everything, she’s definitely a princess.”
The woman ordered her coffee at the counter.
Ryan watched her sit down at a table in the opposite corner.
That’s when he noticed that this supposed princess was crying.
It was not loud, dramatic crying, but the quiet kind where you’re trying really hard to hold it together in public and failing.
She kept wiping her eyes and looking at her phone and then crying harder.
Emma noticed too, because his daughter noticed everything.
She tugged on Ryan’s sleeve and said in that concerned voice she got.
“Daddy why does the princess look sad? Princesses are supposed to smile and be happy like in the movies.”
“Sometimes people just have bad days honey; it’s okay to be sad sometimes,” Ryan said.
Emma looked at him with those big eyes that were exactly like her mother’s.
“But you always tell me that when someone’s sad we should try to help them; that’s what mommy would want us to do, remember?”
Ryan did remember, because he’d been saying that exact thing since Emma was 4 years old and asking why mommy wasn’t coming home from the hospital.
Now his own words were coming back to bite him because his 8-year-old daughter was absolutely right.
Before Ryan could figure out what to say, the woman dropped her phone.
It clattered across the floor and slid right under Ryan’s table.
He picked it up and couldn’t help seeing the lock screen.
It was a photo of her in a wedding dress standing next to a man with the words “Derek and Claire” and a date from three months ago.
He walked over to her table.
“You dropped this,” he said, and held out the phone.
The woman looked up with mascara streaked down her face.
“Oh my god, thank you; i’m so sorry, i’m a complete mess right now, you probably think I’m crazy sitting here crying in public.”
Before Ryan could respond, Emma appeared right next to him.
Apparently, his daughter had decided this was happening whether he was ready or not.
“Are you okay princess? You look really sad, did something bad happen?” Emma said with zero filter.
The woman looked surprised and then she actually laughed a little bit through her tears.
“Princess, that’s very sweet; i’m Claire and yeah, something kind of bad happened, but it was a while ago, i’m just having a hard morning.”
Emma said with the brutal honesty that only eight-year-olds can pull off.
“You look like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, that’s why you’re a princess, but Belle smiles a lot and you’re crying, did your prince turn into a beast or something?”
Ryan wanted to disappear into the floor.
But Claire laughed for real this time.
“You know what, that’s actually pretty accurate; my prince turned out to not be much of a prince at all.”
“I’m Ryan, this is Emma; i’m really sorry, she’s extremely direct and apparently we’re bothering you during your Saturday morning breakdown,” Ryan said.
Claire shook her head.
“No please don’t apologize; adults spend so much energy pretending not to notice when someone’s falling apart, it’s actually really refreshing to have someone just ask.”
She looked at Emma.
“Do you guys want to sit down for a minute? I could probably use the company honestly.”
Emma was already climbing into the chair across from Claire before Ryan could say yes or no.
They sat there for the next hour and a half, which was way longer than Ryan had planned.
Claire told them the age-appropriate version of her story.
She was supposed to get married 3 months ago, but the man had changed his mind at the last possible second.
Emma was absolutely outraged.
“He left you at the wedding? That’s so mean; you’re really pretty and nice, he must be really dumb.”
Claire laughed.
“Thank you sweetheart; i moved here to Austin from Dallas a few weeks ago to start over and this morning I was looking at old photos and feeling sorry for myself so I came here to at least be sad in public instead of alone in my apartment.”
“Austin’s a good city for fresh starts; i’ve lived here my whole life,” Ryan said.
“What do you do?” Claire asked.
“I’m a construction site supervisor for Oak Ridge Construction; we do commercial buildings mostly,” Ryan said.
Claire’s entire face changed.
“Wait, Ryan Mitchell? You’re Ryan Mitchell from Oak Ridge?”
“Yeah, how did you know that?” Ryan asked.
Claire put her hand over her mouth and started laughing.
“I’m your new occupational health nurse; i start on Monday, i’m supposed to do safety checks and handle on-site injuries, we’re literally going to be working together.”
They both just sat there staring at each other.
“This is like when the princess meets the prince in the village before the ball and they don’t know they’re going to see each other again,” Emma said.
Honestly, Emma wasn’t wrong.
“Wow, okay, small world i guess; I’ll see you Monday then,” Ryan said.
“I guess you will; this is either going to be really convenient or really awkward,” Claire said.
“Let’s go with convenient and hey, if you need anything while you’re settling into Austin, restaurant recommendations or directions or whatever, I can give you my number, you know, for work stuff,” Ryan said.
Claire smiled, and it was the first real smile Ryan had seen from her all morning.
“I’d actually really like that; i don’t know anyone here yet and it’s been kind of lonely.”
Emma had apparently appointed herself as the director of this entire interaction.
“You should come to the park with us tomorrow; we go every Sunday and feed the ducks, you can meet our friends and daddy knows where all the good swings are.”
“Emma, don’t pressure people into hanging out with us,” Ryan said.
But Claire was already nodding.
“Actually, that sounds really nice if you don’t mind me crashing your Sunday tradition.”
“We definitely don’t mind; bring coffee and we’ll bring the good snacks, Emma’s very particular about what qualifies as duck-feeding appropriate bread,” Ryan said.
They exchanged numbers and Claire left about 20 minutes later.
The second she was out the door, Emma turned to Ryan with the biggest smile on her face.
“Daddy, you really like the princess, i can tell; you were smiling at her the same way the princes smile at the princesses in my movies.”
Ryan felt his face get hot.
“She’s nice and we’re being friendly cuz she’s new in town and she’s going to work with me, that’s all.”
Emma gave him this look that was way too knowing for an 8-year-old.
“You’re going to marry her someday, i just know it.”
Ryan laughed.
“Slow down kiddo, we literally just met her.”
But he couldn’t stop thinking about Claire’s smile.
He thought about the way she’d laughed at Emma’s princess comment.
He thought about how she’d opened up to complete strangers in a coffee shop because his daughter had asked if she was okay.
