Abby panicked when she arrived home late that night and turned on the light. The first thing she noticed was that all Connor's stuff was gone from its usual places (the floor, the table, the refrigerator, etc.) The mess that was normally scattered all over the house was most decidedly missing. Her first thought was that he had moved out on her, probably gone to live with some bimbo from the bar that she had just taught him how to flirt with.
She raced up the stairs and let out a huge sigh of relief, placing her hand upon her chest as she inhaled, when she found him sleeping deeply where he should be. Tiptoeing, she went back down the stairs so that she wouldn't wake him and opened the fridge to grab a quick bedtime snack before she retired herself. There was a small container in the fridge with her name on it and a little note. Curiously, Abby pulled it out and read the paper attached.
Abs,
Thought you might want a small snack before bed.
Made you some fruit salad. Enjoy.
Connor
Abby stared at it; Connor didn't normally do that kind of stuff for her. If she was there when he was making a snack, he always prepared extra for her, but he never went out of his way like this if she wasn't around. She wondered what had gotten into him lately. The words he had spoken to her the morning before had been running through her head for nearly two days straight now. She put the container on the kitchen table and went grab a spoon from the drawer. It was then that she suddenly noticed just how clean the place actually looked. She hesitated and then spun slowly around the room, noticing that there wasn't a thing out of place and everything seemed to be brighter than normal. She walked into the living room and it was the same thing there. Even Connor's games had all been tidied up. It wasn't just the cleanliness that made the room look brighter though, Abby noticed, the light bulb over by the far wall that had been burnt out for the past eight months had been fixed.
Connor had actually cleaned?
She wandered from room to room opening closets and cupboards to see the extent of his work, and not a thing appeared to be left undone. She headed back to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of paper from the pad on the fridge and a pen. She quickly left him a Thank-You note for the salad and for cleaning and stuck it on the refrigerator door where he'd see it when he made himself breakfast in the morning. She figured he'd been in bed for awhile and would probably be up before her. She ate the salad (which was made out of apples, bananas, blackberries, peaches, pears, mangos and strawberries) and then headed for bed herself.
It was five in the morning when Connor's alarm woke him up and he quickly shut it off again so that he wouldn't wake Abby. Time for Day Three: Flowers and Gifts. He didn't actually have to wake up at the break of dawn to give Abby a present, but he wanted to. He wanted her to wake up and find something on her nightstand before she even got out of bed. He figured it'd put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. The flowers, he decided, since he didn't want them to wilt before he could give them to her. The store lady had promised that the bright blue daisies would last for days. He pulled the wrapped flowers out of their plastic wrapping and headed downstairs to find a glass to put them in. He gave them a drink and immediately they looked a bit fuller of life than they had just a few moments before. He then looked to grab some paper and found Abby's note to him. She had noticed all his work! He grinned and sat down at the table with another sheet of paper and thought hard about what he should write to her to go with the flowers.
It took him awhile, but finally he smiled and jotted down, "Morning Abs, I missed you yesterday. I found these flowers at the grocery store and their brilliant blue colour reminded me of your brilliant blue eyes. They seem to be cheerful just like you, so I couldn't resist getting them for ya. Hope you like them. ~ Connor".
He had also bought her a delicate looking silver bracelet with little blue forget-me-nots in it, but he decided to wait until later to give her that one so that he could watch her unwrap it. He'd tell her it was a gift to show his appreciation for everything she did for him. Grinning to himself, he carefully carried the flowers upstairs and placed them on her nightstand where she'd see them the moment her eyes opened, and then yawned and headed back to bed himself, planning on re-awakening at a much, much, much more decent hour of the day.
