CHAPTER 8
"Morning, sleepy head." said Matt as he brushed a few strands of hair off of my forehead. There was nothing in this world better than waking up to those blue eyes of his.
"Hey, you." I reached up for him as he leaned in close, pressing his mouth to mine. I felt a little groggy and weak as the weight of him pushed me back down into the bed.
"Hungry?" I nodded, making me keenly aware of the dull throbbing that was banging away at both temples. "Yeah…" I whispered.
"Pancakes and sausage OK?" Again, I nodded. "Are you OK, Maddy?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little foggy and I feel the beginning of a headache coming on. Just how much wine did I drink last night?" Matt shifted his body and picked up a dark green bottle up off the floor. "Looks like we killed the bottle, baby." I moaned and buried my face into Matt's chest, not wanting to move.
"You'll feel better once you get some coffee into you," he said. I kissed his chest and said "I'd rather get some of you inside me." He moaned slightly as my mouth roamed over one of his nipples. I licked and tugged gently at it with my teeth. He lifted my face up to his and kissed me softly. "Are you trying to kill me, woman?!" he said, grinning. He kissed me again and headed downstairs to the kitchen to start breakfast. "No," I said quietly, "I'm trying to make a baby for us that doesn't seem to want to come." Don't go there, Madeleine Elizabeth...my inner voice always used my full name when she was scolding me. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, feeling my head swimming somewhere behind me. I sat on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes until the lightheadedness passed. I pushed myself up off of the bed and slowly made my way into the bathroom. I reached into the shower and turned on the faucet, letting it run for a few minutes to warm up. The nasty Chicago winter had cut itself permanently into my bones and for a brief moment, I regretted not choosing to live in a much warmer climate after I graduated from college. Don't go there either, Madeleine Elizabeth...
I stepped into the shower, letting the warm stream of water run down my back. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, enjoying the feel of the hot water pounding against my skin, until I became overheated and dizzy. Stupid me. Always taking things to extremes. I finished washing up, then wrapped myself up in a large towel and stepped out onto the bath mat. While I was towel drying my hair, Matt came into the bathroom holding two cups of coffee.
"Thought you could use this," he said as he handed me a cup. As soon as the aroma of it hit my nostrils, I felt like I was going to vomit. The memory of the cold coffee grounds and stale onion bagel with cream cheese came rushing back to me like a runaway locomotive. I immediately handed the cup back to Matt and raced around the corner to the toilet. I lifted the lid with two seconds to spare, with Matt running behind me.
"Christ, Maddy...are you sure you're alright?" He held my hair back while I continued to heave out whatever was left of last night's dinner. I wiped my mouth on the towel that was wrapped around me before dropping down to sit on the floor. Matt followed me down to the floor, sitting next to me.
"Coffee and I aren't exactly getting along lately. It started a couple of weeks ago when I was working on the department budget. I was so knee deep into it one day that I forgot to eat lunch, so I took a bite of an old bagel that had been on my desk since 7:00 AM and washed it down with more grounds than actual coffee.. Let's just say it wasn't my finest hour."
"I'm sorry, baby. Can I bring you something else? Juice? Tea, maybe?"
"Tea. Chamomile, if we have it."
"I'm on it," he said, helping me up off the bathroom floor. "Are you sure you're okay?" I nodded. "Yeah, I'm just sorry that you had to see that." He smiled and kissed my forehead before going back downstairs. I brushed my teeth and ran a comb through my hair, then toweled myself off. I grabbed my robe from the back of the bathroom door and wrapped it around me. The hot shower did nothing to relieve the chill I felt throughout my body. I rummaged through my dresser until I found a black pair of leggings and quickly pulled them on, hoping that the extra layer on my legs would warm me up. I completed my look with a pair of Matt's heavy socks and his Black Hawks jersey. Before joining Matt downstairs, I took a quick glimpse in the mirror. I was wearing a lovely shade of Chicago winter pale on my face, so I pinched my cheeks to give myself a little color, at least temporarily.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I could smell the heady aroma of bacon being fried. My unsettled tummy started to rumble with small pangs of hunger now. Matt met me in the living room with a steaming mug of tea and a piece of bacon in his hand.
"Have I told you how much I love you?" I asked between munches. "I always know what my girl needs." he replied. He wasn't wrong and even though I was way past the age of being a girl, I still loved to hear him call me that. I settled down on one end of the couch, sitting sideways and putting my feet up. The Sunday morning Chicago Tribune was partially spread out on the coffee table. I picked up the Entertainment section and settled back in on the chill I felt finally started to diminish with the each sip of tea that I swallowed.
"Breakfast is ready, baby." Matt called from the dining room. I felt a little too comfortable to move and I looked at him with my best puppy dog eyes and patting the seat next to me, hoping to get him to bring the breakfast into the living room. "Ok, Ok, I can take a hint." He set a big plate of pancakes and bacon down in front of me on the coffee table before sitting at the opposite end of the couch.
"I guess you're feeling better," he said as I speared the last bit of pancake with my fork and swirled it around in the remaining puddle of syrup on my plate before shoveling it into my mouth. "Yesh," I said, licking syrup off my fingers. I washed down the last of my breakfast with the rest of my tea, then hopped up off the couch. Holding my plate in one hand, I picked up Matt's plate from his lap and headed towards the kitchen.
"Sit down, baby. I'll clean up." I turned to see Matt following me into the kitchen. "You cooked, I'll clean. It's only fair." I said. I put the dirty dishes and mugs in the dishwasher, then filled the sink with hot, soapy water. Matt's iPod was in the dock on the kitchen table, so I turned it on and twirled my way back to the sink. I set the frying pan into the pile of steaming bubbles that had filled the sink, then scrubbed down the stove top before moving onto the countertops. I swiped the sopping sponge across the granite, humming along with The Cranberries as the song "When You're Gone" echoed across the kitchen.
"Hold on to love...that is what I do...now that I've found you…"
I plunged my rubber gloved hands into the sink and scrubbed the cast iron pan vigorously as I sang. Before I knew it, I was using the scrub brush as a microphone.
"...and in the day, everything's complex….there's nothing simple when I'm not around you…"
"You're so goddamned cute," said Matt as he slipped his arms around my waist and kissed the side of my neck. We stood there swaying and singing together with the music until our little impromptu concert was interrupted by the ring of the kitchen phone. "Ten to one, that's my father. He's the only one I know who still calls the landline." Matt nodded in agreement before answering.
"Hi, Jim. What's up?" Matt said, pointing to his nose, telling me that I was right. I knew my Dad's habits very well. "Yeah, sure...that would be good with us. We'll be home all day. Is everything alright? OK, we'll see you then. Bye, Jim." Matt hung up the phone. He had a puzzled look on his face.
"Is everything OK with my Dad? The look on your face is worrying me." I said. ""No, yeah...umm he said he's fine but that he just needs to talk to us." said Matt. The puzzled look still hadn't left his face. "About what?" I was getting even more worried now. "He didn't say. All he said was that it was important and that he'd be here around 2 o'clock." My mind quickly shifted into high gear, turning over every possible reason why Dad needed to talk to us. What was so important that he felt he had to call first?
"Maddy...come on. I can tell by your expression that you're starting to worry. Let's not jump to conclusions, OK?" Matt was always my calm voice of reason, especially when I started to over react or over think something, which was all the time.
"OK, Lieutenant," I said, half-heartedly, as he took me in his arms and started to slow dance.
"Dance with me, baby. This song belongs to us." I stopped listening to my inner voice chattering away long enough to hear the music that was wafting through the kitchen. It was "At Last" by Etta James. Our wedding song. I laid my head against his chest and nodded. For whatever reason, I started to cry. Just a few tears, quietly rolling down my cheeks as we swayed slowly to our song. My grip on him tightened as I thought of my father and and his impending visit, suddenly feeling like everything was going to fall apart.
"I love you," whispered Matt.
"I love you too, Lieutenant." Somehow, those words that have always solidified our bond together no matter what we were going through, suddenly seemed like they weren't nearly enough.