Soul Mates?
Part 11
The sun coming in through the window open woke Natalie up. She sat at slowly at first a bit confused to find herself in an unfamiliar bed. The last thing she could recall was falling asleep against Stephen while they watched the DVD. Apparently he had managed to carry her to his room and put her to bed. Throwing off the blanket she began searching for her shoes.
"I see you finally woke up," Stephen commented as he stood in the doorway watching her.
"Yeah. I guess I was still pretty tired after last that last case," Natalie replied. "Where did you sleep?"
"The couch. I'm getting ready to fix breakfast. Want some?" Stephen asked.
She shook her head and replied, "I really think I need to be getting on home. I'll see you tomorrow." Locating her shoes she began slipping them on.
"Natalie, please stay and at least have breakfast. With us. All I did was put you to bed when you fell asleep. Trust me that I didn't take advantage of you. I respect you too much for that," he said, moving to lay a hand on her shoulder.
Natalie looked up and smiled, "Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to have breakfast. What are you fixing?"
"Bacon and eggs and toast. Or something else if you don't want that. Although there's not much in the fridge that I can fix," he answered.
She laughed lightly and said, "Stephen, you're rambling. Bacon and eggs is fine with me."
"Good. I do have some orange juice in the fridge if you want it," he answered and headed back to the kitchen.
Left alone, Natalie headed for the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she thought back to the previous evening. She had been enjoying herself until slumber had claimed her. She knew that Stephen wouldn't have done anything. But it was often hard to get past what had happened when she'd first started dating after her divorce. Seeing on the sink a still wrapped tooth brush, she grabbed it, making a mental note to buy one the next day to replace it.
"How do you like your eggs?' Stephen asked seeing Natalie enter the kitchen.
"Scrambled is fine," Natalie replied as she reached in the cupboard for a mug.
"Scrambled it is. Hey, I still have some of Frank's hot sauce left yet," he told her.
"The good kind?" Natalie asked helping herself to the freshly brewed coffee.
"The good kind." Stephen answered as he began to scramble a couple of eggs.
"Where's Jack?' Natalie asked as she sat down to enjoy her coffee.
"He had a bowl of cereal and took off to spend the day with one of his buddies. So it's just you and I," Stephen answered.
"Yeah. Just us," she replied sipping her coffee.
"You don't sound very enthusiastic about that," Stephen commented. He quickly finished the eggs and after putting them on the plate, carried both the plate and hot sauce over to the table.
"I'm just tired I guess," Natalie replied, half heatedly sprinkling the homemade hot sauce on the scrambled eggs.
He sat down at the table. "What's wrong, Natalie? Last night you were enjoying yourself and then this morning you seemed pretty uncomfortable that you slept in my bed. Now that you know Jack is gone, it's like you don't want to be here. Is it me?"
She smiled a little sadly and replied, "No, its not you. I-I just feel uncomfortable being in a strange bed." She took a sip of coffee. "I never told anybody before. But on one of the first dates after my divorce I woke up to find myself in a bed and no memory of what had happened. Turns out a man I thought I trusted slipped something in my glass of wine."
"Natalie, I promise I'll never do anything you don't want or without your permission to do so" Stephen assured her, angry at the unknown person who'd do such a thing to her.
"I know you wouldn't," she answered and slowly took a forkful of the eggs.
"Want to stay for lunch? There's still plenty of leftover pizza," he suggested.
She smiled and said, "I might just take you up on that offer.