"Goodnight, Annie" I whisper comfortingly as I slip into our king sized bed. I lift the covers over mine and Annie's body now dressed for night. "Sweet dreams." I give a smile.
"I'll try, Goodnight Finnick." She says, closing her eyes and relaxing. I reach over and sweep her beautiful dark hair off her forehead. I've never seen anything so beautiful or peaceful. Yet I'm sure inside her head its nothing but. I don't know if she knows it but I usually stay awake all night watching her to make sure she's okay. I watch in case she starts screaming so I can bring her back. I need to stay awake. She needs me.
2 minutes later, I fall asleep.
I wake up around 7:20 and reach over in my usual routine to bring Annie into my arms. I reach but all my arms find is a cool bunch of blankets and pillows. I rummage through the pillows, feeling the bed.
"Annie?" I say searching into the darkness. After a couple minutes I realize she's definitely not here. I get up and a chill washes over me. Getting out of a warm bed then into a dark, air-conditioned room wearing nothing but my tie-die boxers, I slip on some pants that cling loosely around my hips. I step out of the bedroom into the hall, looking around. Where on earth could this woman be? I peak into the closest room, look around its dark interior then walk out. She's not in there. I pad my feet along the hall way, she wouldn't be in the 'man cave'. She thinks it's ridiculous. But I peak in and check anyways. Curse this house for not having many light fixtures, I can barely see anything. Usually it's bright during the day so the sun shines through the many windows, but in the morning it's completely opposite. I decide not to shout her name out in case she fell asleep somewhere, so I continue my silent search throughout the house. I suddenly start to panic. What if someone snuck in here and kidnapped her? I run to the front door to see it was left unlocked. Oh no, someone stole her in the night! There weren't many rooms left. I check every room, left and right. I even checked in the cubboards. Maybe she had a freak out and didn't wake me up. What if she ran away? Stupid Finnick! I scold myself. I almost give up when I remember there is a room I didn't check yet. I half run down the hall and turn left. A room neither of us have been in for a while. The art room. I quietly open the door and look around. Construction paper of every colour you could imagine was neatly organized on the sides of the walls. All the crayons, pastels, paints and glue were neatly arranged on the many desks. There was one huge white desk in the middle of the room. I almost gave up until I see Annie sitting on a high up swivel chair, hunched over working hard on something. She hears me open the door wider when she turns around a little too fast and plummets to the floor with a thump.
"Annie!" I shout, rushing to her aid. "Oh my Goldfish. Are you okay?" I say, and when she doesn't answer I add "Annie say something!" I reach down and pick up her small, delicate frame and place her gently back on the chair.
"I-I'm fine." She says but I don't believe her one bit because the grimace on her face says otherwise. I turn my head and see all these paper flowers on the desk. "Wha-" I start about to ask what she was doing but there are more important questions to be asked first. "Why- why are you here? I was looking all over the house for you! I thought someone stole you in the night!" She giggles at me then I realized how over-protective I sounded.
"Well," she sighs, her tone growing serious as well as the expression on her face. "I woke up from a bad dream at like 5am, and I didn't want to wake you, so I got up and walked around the house until I found this room." I didn't like the sound of any part of what she just said. She had a bad dream, woke up and didn't wake me?
"Annie…" I say disapprovingly. She needs to tell me these things! Wait a second... "You were making flowers for 2 hours?" I see her spin her head to look at the clock as does mine. The little machine reads 7:45.
"Actually, one and a half." She says as matter-of-factly which makes me throw my head back and laugh. Eventually I need to take a breath so I stop and rest against the desk.
"Well, I thought we could go to the beach today and collect some seashells or something." I ask, playing with my fingers looking at my hands. I find it hilarious how I still get anxious to ask my own wife out. I hope she doesn't catch on to my nervousness.
"That's a great idea!" She beams. This makes me happy and the anxieties vanish. "Wait, what do you want for breakfast?" She asks.
"Anything." I thought about it for a moment. "I'll make breakfast today."