Happy Reading xoxo
Chapter Forty-Three
Anastasia's POV:
I wake up and feel a little sick, but it's not that bad. I turn over and see Kate sleeping soundly. Where is Christian? I get up and my back is killing me from sleeping on the floor. I walk into the kitchen and grab a class. There's no orange juice left so I drink some water. I hear Christian and Elliot laughing as they walk in the room.
"Let's dump water on them."
I clear my throat "Excuse me" The both stop and stare.
"We didn't think you'd be up yet." Christian says trying to defend himself.
"Well I am."
"How's your head?"
"Perfectly fine."
"What? How is that possible." Elliot says.
"Please be quiet." Kate says waking from her slumber.
I grab two tablets of Advil and a glass of water for her. "Here, take these." She takes the tablets and chugs the water. "Ana, can you make me your special hangover breakfast?" She says with a smile.
"Anything for you, darling. If you want to shower and change you can grab an outfit from my closet and shower in the guest room."
"I'll join you." Elliot says and lifts his eyebrows. Christian just stares mortified. I start getting the ingredients for pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast and coffee.
Christian is watching me as I cook. Once everything is done, I put it in the warmer and go change. I decide to just wear sweatpants and a tee-shirt. I almost crash into Kate and Elliot walking out of my room. I can't help but giggle because it's obvious they just had sex. Her face is flushed, she's back to her happy, buoyant self and has a cat who caught the canary grin plastered on her face.
"I guess the Advil's done it's job." I say mocking her as we walk down the stairs.
"It did wonders. I'm surprised you two didn't have a quickly while we were gone." Elliot says and Kate has no shame.
When we reach the breakfast bar, I kiss Christian and grab the plates from the warming tray.
"Eggs over toast, salsa, pancakes and bacon. Do you guys want tea or coffee?" The boys want coffee, but Kate want tea. I hand them each a glass of water coffee for Christian and Elliot then place the kettle on the stove. They are taking up the seats so I decide to stand and eat.
"Christian, how have you not put a ring on her finger?" Elliot says.
"Trust me, if there were any chance at her saying yes, I would ask her to marry me. One day soon, there will be a ring on that finger. I promise." He says and winks at me. The thought of marriage has never crossed my mind. I love Christian with my whole heart, but we've only been together seven months.
He's right when he says one day I will marry him, but not right now.
Christian offers his seat to me but I say no. I turn around and look through the tea shelf, which seems to be overflowing.
"Christian, did you buy this for me?"
"Well, I thought I should be stocked in case you wanted different flavours once in awhile."
"How sweet!" Kate says.
"This is why I love him."I say with a smile and Elliot starts to fake gag.
"Oh stop it." We all say in unison and Kate slaps him for good measure.
"Your girlfriend cooks you breakfast and mine abuses me!" Elliot says and Kate hits him again.
"What kind of tea would you like Kate?"
"Green please." I grab green tea and one English Breakfast. I leave it in my mug for a minute before taking it out. Kate is the opposite; she loves her tea strong. Everyone finishes there meal and I rinse the plates before putting them in the dishwasher.
We decide to do something together today, but can't decide what.
"How about the Pike Place Market?" I suggest I've only seen the outside.
"That sounds good." Christian says.
"I'm in." Kate adds.
"I guess I'll come" Elliot says.
"Alright, I'm going to get changed and help Kate find some shoe and we can go." It's twelve now so we can look around and have an early lunch. I sit on the bed while Kate picks something out for me. She comes out wearing my tall brown leather boots and throws my falcon long belted petticoat, Nola mesh-panel combo top and the skinny leather jeans at me. I don't like being babied, but she has excellent taste in clothing.
I put it on before going into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. Kate insists I wear a little bit of make up and I'm too tired to fight with her. I do a pale smokey eyes, which makes her happy. I pick out a pair of black ankle boots and we are ready to go.
Christian decides to drive although security will still be following us. I don't know why we need to drive since it's fifteen minutes from the apartment. The first thing we do is look at the farmers market. Christian and I decide to buy some stuff for the house. I have always loved the idea of locally grown food and Christian is passionate about anything to do with food and environmental friendly things. We give our bags to the new girl Prescott before we continue looking around. Kate wants to look at the vintage stuff, which is near the books so I agree.
I buy this adorable owl necklace. My grandmother loved owls and it's something she passed along to me. I have a dozen pieces of owl jewellery - most of which I got from her. Christian is distracted so I use this chance to buy him a pocket watch. The only reason I need to hide is because it's a hundred and fifty dollars, but from the looks of the watch, it's worth six hundred at least. I put it in my purse before he looks over. I put the necklace on and join Kate who is looking at a set of silver ombre tumblers. She buys them before we get the guys and head into a book store.
We look around for a while and I see so many books I want to buy, but Christian bought me so many I don't need anymore right now.
As were leaving the woman at the cash stops us.
"Excuse me." I look at my hands to see if I'm holding a book, but I'm not. She runs over and I see she has a copy of my book in her hand.
"I'm so sorry to bother you Miss Steele I was wondering if you could sign my book." She says with a shy smile. This girl looks seventeen.
"Sure. What's your name?" I say with a smile. She hands me her pen and a book.
"Jasmine, I love reading and your book was amazing! Someday I want to be a published author. " She says and smiles.
"We both have princess names."
Dear Jasmine,
A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away. That quote is from my favourite book Tess of The D'Urbervilles. If you stay in school and focus on your dream it will come true mine did. Never lose hope and don't care about what other people think it will get you nowhere.
Best Wishes,
Anastasia Rose Steele
I hand back her book and she wraps her arms around me. "Thank you." She walks back to the cash and we walk out. It's five and everything is closing so we decide to go eat somewhere. We walk around and look at the different Menu's before deciding on The Pink Door. It's not very loud, which is a good thing and the atmosphere is romantic. Christian gets us a table no problem and we are seated right away. One of the perks of being with Christian Grey I guess. Some people when handed bad cards in life would give up, but Christian used it to become the success he is today and I look up to him for that.
We order a bunch of food for the table and a bottle of 'Abbey Ridge' Pinot Noir, which is a great combination of fruity, wood spice and a subtle oak flavor. Christian tells us that this wine has had some amazing reviews and some pretty shitty ones. I wouldn't say I'm a wine expert, but I like it.
The entrées and starters we ordered arrive at the same time as Christian requested and take turns trying a little bi of each. The conversation never stops as we enjoy our food. My favourite dish is probably the duck breast, but the kale whips were a close second. They don't have a dessert menu, so Christian pays the bill and we head out.
We decide to go get dessert at The Convectional, which apparently has some of the best cheesecake. I order the Egg Nog, Kate orders the Pumpkin, Christian orders the Triple Berry and Elliot gets the Lemon and White Chocolate Cheesecake. We pay the bill and sit down and eat. The cheesecake is absolutely amazing so before we leave I buy one of each for later. Luke is driving Christian and I home and Prescott is taking Kate and Elliot. I don't think Christian really trusts her yet, but she's nice.
I put the Cheesecake in the fridge while Christian picks a movie. He decides on the Avengers and I don't complain. I cuddle up next to him and he places the blanket over me. For the next two hours we sit in silence and watch the movie, but I can tell something's bugging Christian.
"Spill it!" I demand and he looks confused. "I know something's wrong tell me."
"It's freaky how you always know." I can't help but smile when he says that. It always freaks him out that I'm able to see beyond his mask.
"It's because I know you, Christian. Now what's bothering you."
He lets out a huge sigh and starts talking "I was thinking about what we were talking about earlier. The whole marriage thing. Why don't we just get married? I love you and you love me what more do we need?" Is he serious?
"Christian, I do love you don't doubt that for a second, but I just turned twenty-two!"
"So that just means more time for you to be married to me."
"Christian, you haven't met my mother, we haven't gone to therapy, you haven't asked my father, we haven't talked about kids, how we'd raise them, we have to see if were compatible living with each other." His face falls.
"If we do those things, will you agree to marry me?"
"I don't see any reason why I wouldn't Christian."
"Yes!" He gets up and starts running into his office. "Christian, where are you going?"
"To call your mother of course." Yeah because that was obvious
"Do you even have her phone number?"
"Anastasia, I knew everything about you from the day we first met."
"What?!"
"I did a background check." I glare at him. "It's my policy." He says before running into the safety of his office. I knew it was something he did, but I didn't know he did one on me. I grab some more cheesecake and am washing my plate when Christian comes out.
"Your mother's coming to visit next week."
"SHE'S WHAT?!"
"I thought you'd be happy."
"There is a reason you haven't met my mother, Christian. I need weeks to prepare myself for her visits. I love her, but she's loud and pushy."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't, Christian, it's fine, but brace yourself." He looks rather scared right now.
"Let go to bed." I nod and he picks me up and carries me to our bedroom. He takes off my clothes and throws me an old tee before climbing into bed and holding me close. "Also we have a session with Flynn on Tuesday."
"Wow, you want to get this list done fast."
"Mmhmm" He kisses me before we fall asleep. I wake up and Christian's arms are still wrapped around me.
"Good morning, baby." He says in a tired voice.
"Good morning, sweetie. How did you sleep?" I say while stretching.
"Great! How about you?"
"I had a fantastic sleep." I kiss him before rolling out of bed. "I'm going to shower."
When I get out and change Christian is sitting at the breakfast bar. "I decided to cook for you, but I know nothing about cooking." He says as he hands be a cup of tea.
"I'm sure it's great."
"It's just scrambled eggs with tomato and cheese."
"Mmhmm yummy." I take a seat at the bar.
Christian's watching me as I take my first bite. "So what do you think?" He sounds both excited and nervous.
"It's really good, Christian, thank you." We finish eating and he gets a call.
"I'm sorry, babe, I have to take this."
"No problem." I wash the dishes before I head into my office and do some work. By the time I'm done, Christian still hasn't emerged from his office so I decide to read something.
I walk back into my office and look at the books. Holy crap there's so many of them!
I decide to read The Lovely Bones. It's about a girl who's murdered and a father trying to find out who killed her. I remember seeing the movie with Kate a while back, but the book is amazing! When I'm done, it's almost three and Christian's still not out.
I decide to know on his door. "Christian?" I call.
"What?" He stays harshly. I crack open the door and he looks extremely stressed.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"A huge deal we've been working on is falling through. I just need to fix this mess. I'm sorry." I nod and back out the door.
I do everything possible to keep myself busy while I wait, but he doesn't come out. I've read, worked out, watched a movie and now it's getting late. I cook diner for us, but he just stays in there. At ten, I decide he's not going to come so I climb into bed and fall asleep.
I might not get to post until Tuesday or Wednesday. Please Review.