ADaaD(A Dollar and a Dream)

Chapter 4: What's Your Favorite Color

So here we are making breakfast together, Lauren insisted that she help with something. So, she's making the pancake batter, while I whip up a hash brown casserole that I love, and I hope that Lauren loves too. I take the hash browns and sauté them, then I add diced onions, green peppers, red peppers, sausage, and I top it off with cheese, and bake it for a few minutes so the cheese melts. Dicing onions is the absolute only thing I hate about cooking, my eyes always water. I've tried every trick in the book to avoid it but it's inevitable. I'm dicing the onions and I start to sniffle because my damn eyes are burning right now.

I close my eyes tightly, hoping to get some relief when I feel Lauren's hand on top of mine as she gently slides the knife out of my hand. "Hold your head back." She whispers. I slowly do, as she presses a cold towel lightly on my eyes. She holds it gently yet firmly on my eyes before she lifts it and dabs each eye softly. "Keep them closed for a few minutes so the coolness can soothe them."

"Ok." I tell her as my stomach drops to my knees. Can she be anymore perfect? I exhale slowly as she places a new cool paper towel on my eyes. I then feel her slowly wiping away the tear tracts from when my eyes were watering before. She takes the new paper towel off and kisses each eye softly. My stomach twists: I feel nauseous, anxious, aroused, sick, happy, scared...everything all at the same time.

"You can open them now; it should be all better." She says cheerfully. I slowly open my eyes and see her smiling at me brightly while she licks her lips. "Ever wonder why tears are salty?" She asks with a shrug.

"T-thanks for that." I told her.

"Blink a few times." She instructs me. I blink slowly a few times before blinking quickly a few times. "Still itchy?" She asks while cocking her head to the side. "They are still kind of red."

"No, they feel better now." I tell her with a smile.

"Cool." She says happily while turning back around to the stove and pouring some batter into the skillet. I'm glued to the floor and simply stare at her. She has so much rhythm; even the way she pours the batter is graceful. I could stare at her for hours, just watching her do random household chores and I would probably still be in awe.

We finish cooking together, perfectly in sync. We anticipated what the other one needed; we never got in each other's way. It was so surreal to me. I take cooking pretty seriously. I hate when other people are in the kitchen while I cook, they always get in the way, and cooking with someone is just a big fat NO to me. I need my space to prepare my masterpieces, or so I thought. Cooking with Lauren was relaxing in a way, there is something about her that calms me down and just relaxes me. She's like that first breath of fresh air you get when you go outside early on a spring morning after it rained all night.

I fix plates for the both of us and we head to the table in the dining area of my apartment, since I don't have a table in my kitchen. I set the plates down and pour us a cup of juice to go alongside with our hot chocolate. We eat in a comfortable silence before I speak up.

"Do you work today?" I ask her while taking a sip of my juice.

"No, I was going to go to the dance studio and watch some of Mike's classes, but I would rather stay and hang out with you." She states casually with stuffing more pancakes in her mouth. I love how she makes everything seem simple, it makes me think about my life and how I structure everything down to a science, but with Laur, it seems like she just goes with the flow.

I blush again, like a dork. "I feel honored." I tell her with a dopey smile. She looks up at me with a mouth full of syrup and smiles. I swear she does or says something new every 2 minutes that makes her even cuter than before. Even though I'm starving, I'm eating tentatively right now; Lauren makes me a little nervous, I don't want to embarrass myself in front of her. She, on the other hand, is gobbling these pancakes down. I laugh softly to myself. She seems so sure of herself; it's almost like nothing fazes her or bothers her. I wonder where all that food goes, because like I've said before, her body is perfect, maybe she works out.