Chapter 3

They arrived at Monk's apartment. The car ride was silent, awkwardly silent. Monk looked over at Natalie, she looked at him, and they stayed that way for about 30 seconds. Monk broke the silence. "I guess I should go now, but something tells me this is a bad idea."

"What do you mean?" She asked, leaning into him and grabbing his jacket collar. "Oh my God. Do you see what I mean? I never would have done that if…" Monk cut her off by kissing her passionately on the lips.

The kiss lasted for about 2 minutes and ended when Monk pulled away. He laid his forehead against hers and kissed the tip of her nose. "I guess I need to be going. I'll call you." He opened the car door and Natalie was frozen the way he had left her. When he closed the door, she came back to life and ran after him. She caught up to him and grabbed his arm.

"I don't think we need to be apart anymore." She said.

"Why do you think that?" he asked, turning around to face her.

"Because I think we have found what we have been looking for." She said with tears in her eyes. "I love you Adrian, and I know you are feeling something for me too."

"Natalie I think your right," he said walking close to her and holding her hands. "but I'm afraid. Why don't we go inside and talk about this?"

"Ok." Natalie followed him inside and sat down on his couch.

Monk sat next to her and looked into her eyes. He remembered how he felt like he could look at Trudy forever, and now he felt like he could do that with Natalie. "Natalie we have to figure out what is happening here between us, because I really don't want to get hurt again."

"Oh I completely understand, Mr. Monk." She said moving closer to him. She put one hand on his knee and the other was up playing with his hair. She got lost in his eyes and she forgot what time it was. "Oh my God!" she said looking at her watch. "I have to pick Julie up from band practice." She said with a disappointed look on her face.

"Wow that's a change, you actually don't want to leave." Monk said laughing.

She laughed with him. She hardly ever saw him laugh, much less smile, so she got lost in him again. "Oh I better go…I'll call you." She said and gave him a huge kiss almost knocking him over. "No I won't call…I'll try to come back as soon as I drop Julie of at home…I love you, Mr. Monk."

"Call me Adrian." He said as he took her in for a hug. He kissed the top of her head. "I love you, too."

They finally let go of each other after five minutes. Natalie ran to her car and rushed over to Julie's school, which was about 5 or 6 blocks from Monk's apartment. She was still 10 minutes late. "I'm sorry sweetie I got held up at Adr…Mr. Monk's place."

"Did you almost say Adrian?" Julie asked her mother, knowing that she only called him Adrian if he was in trouble.

"No…I don't know what you're talking about." Natalie said trying not to smile.

"What did he do this time to annoy you?" Julie asked Natalie with her arms crossed.

"Mr. Monk didn't do anything. Well he did some things but none of them were bad." Natalie laughed but when she looked at her daughter and saw her facial expression, she stopped.

"What do you mean by that?" Julie asked her with a smile forming on her face.

"Do you have a lot of homework?" Natalie asked trying to change the subject. She was surprised that Julie was smiling. Julie usually hated it when her mom talked about one of her dates with some random guy.

"Not that much. Just some math and reading." Julie said as they got out of the car.

"Well, do I have to stay and make sure you get it done?" Natalie said as they walked through the door. She knew she didn't have to, but she wanted to make sure Julie didn't want her to stay.

"No I don't think so. You never have to."

"Ok. Well I am going to be at Mr. Monk's you know the number if you need anything. Don't forget to lock the doors, I can't stress that enough. I'll be right back." Natalie ran upstairs to the bathroom to freshen up a little and reapply her make-up where it had come off earlier. She ran back downstairs like she was running a marathon. "I'll see ya later. Don't wait up." She told Julie after she kissed her on the head. She ran out the door and drove off.

It seemed like it took forever to get to Monk's apartment, even though it was only 15 minutes away. When she finally got to his place, her cell phone rang. She looked at her caller id and saw that it was the Captain and she knew she had to answer it. "Yeah, what do you want?" she asked.

"Natalie are you alright? You sound like you are out of breath."

"Well Captain to tell you the truth, you have kind of caught me and Mr. Monk at a bad time." She said trying to tell him what was going on as discreetly as possible. "If you know what I mean."

"No I don't know what you mean. So what is he so busy doing that he can't solve a murder?" He asked Natalie hastily. She rolled her eyes on the other end. He always used that line when he couldn't get Monk on the phone.

"So what do you need?" she asked him nicely.

"Let me talk to him." Stottlemeyer said

"Please??" Natalie said trying to get him to say it.