Chapter Four

I wasn't quite sure what time I actually fell back to sleep but I knew it had been relatively late. Several things contributed to this: the fact that I never realized how uncomfortable my couch was, thinking about Natalie and if she was laying awake in my bed, did she want me to join her, and was she mad at me for staying in the living room. The strangest of all the happenings from the little sleep I got was the dream I had. A few days before Natalie and I got engaged I had a dream about black birds singing and ironically they were singing Black Bird by the Beatles. Than last night I dreamt of me catching the birds. I wasn't quite sure what it meant. I just hoped it didn't mean trouble.

I woke up the following morning with the smell of something sweet looming over me. The light from the sun was blinding me so I opened my eyes slowly. I heard a few clanks, some hisses and a couple "ooh, oohs" coming from the kitchen. I sat up warily nervous to what I might see. When I glanced toward the kitchen, I saw little, petite Natalie standing by the sink pulling waffles out of the waffle iron. She was making breakfast.

I got up and decided to join her in the kitchen. As I walked through the dinning room, I saw the table was covered in other breakfast items. There were two glasses of orange juice, two mugs of coffee and chopped up strawberries and bananas. I breathed in the alluring aroma and walked up behind Natalie in the kitchen. I stood close enough that I could smell the batter that was on her face and in her hair. I gently put my chin on her right shoulder to see what she was doing. She jumped from shock making me bite my tongue. I stood up straight grimacing with pain. Natalie turned around and covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh my God, are you okay? You scared the crap out of me."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just bit my tongue, but I'll live."

"I'm so sorry," she said still worried.

I laughed trying to break her from her worrying. "It's fine, really. So I see you made breakfast."

She stumbled as she turned back to the waffle iron. She flipped it open revealing a rather crispy waffle. She grabbed a spatula and flipped the waffle onto a pile of perfect waffles. "Yeah and that was the last one," she said pulling the plug out and turning the knob to off. "Go sit down. I'll bring the waffles over."

But I didn't let her. I took the two plates with the stacks of waffles and carried them to the dinning room. She brushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear and sat down adjacent to me at the table. I placed the plate with the non-burnt waffles in front of Natalie. She smiled and poured some bananas and strawberries on top of her waffles. I watched her as she ate full bites of waffle and fruit. I took a bite of waffle covered in syrup. My mouth watered from the deliciousness of the waffles. "These are amazing," I said between bites.

"Thanks," she blushed.

I laughed as we continued to eat and watched as Natalie still didn't realize she had batter on her face. She looked at me questioningly. "Come here," I said telling her to lean in towards me. She leaned in hesitantly. I licked my fingers and rubbed gently where the batter was on her cheek. She realized what I was doing and laughed. When I finally got it off, she covered her cheek with her hand. She turned a slight red.

After she took a few sips of orange juice, she started talking about work and a little about the wedding. She was quite animated as she talked. I sat quietly as I let her talk. As I watched her speak, my stomach filled with butterflies. Not only was this girl beautiful, but she was smart, funny, an amazing cook, and dedicated to her work. As I sat there listening to her as she rambled on about the wedding details or school, I realized that I would be one hell of a lucky guy to wake up to such a wonderful person everyday for the rest of my life. When we first met she said whoever got the ring would be one lucky girl. Well little did I know I was going to be the lucky one if I got to be with her.