"I found her"

Ch. 14

"3...2...1! Happy new year!" I turned to Grace who had a small glass of champagne in her right hand. I took it from her hand, set it down on our coffee table, pulled her in by her waist, and kissed her. "Happy new year." I whispered. "Happy new year." She said softly before kissing me. I hugged her after the kiss and held her tightly in my arms. I stared out the window, watching the melting snow roll down the glass. Neither of us had said anything, we just held each other for a few moments. "I'm gonna get some sleep." Grace said as she let go of me. "Okay." I said before I kissed her forehead. "Goodnight." She said. I smiled as I said, "Goodnight."
       It was just me now. Me and the rest of our empty house. I switched the channel to one that played black and white movies and tv shows and turned the volume low. I walked into the kitchen and quietly made myself a hot coffee. I sat on the island that was in the kitchen and watched 'I Love Lucy'. It was the one where her and Ethel try to get jobs like their husbands. I grinned when Lucy stuffed all the chocolates in her mouth. I took a sip of my coffee and looked at Grace's bedroom door. I hadn't realized that she put some fake flowers on it. Cute I thought silently. Then, I thought, some flowers could lighten up the place so I turned off the tv, quietly jumped off the island, grabbed my coat and keys, and drove off to a florist. They probably weren't open but I still wanted to try. If they weren't open, I could just buy some fake ones at the corner store anyways.
       I found some fake white flowers and then some yellow ones. I didn't know how many to get so those were the only ones I bought. While I was there, I had an idea: what if Grace and I made a scrapbook? I grabbed a rustic looking journal and some brown washi tape and then a few smaller fake flowers to put in it.
     "This all?" The girl at the cash register asked. "Yes." I said. She nodded and started scanning the things. She looked up at me. "You look tired." She said. I chuckled. "I kinda am." I said. She giggled. It wasn't sweet like Grace's. This girl sounded kind of creepy. "Okay, that'll be 20 pounds." She told me. I swiped my card. "Alright, you're all set." She said, handing me the bag. "Thank you." I said. She nodded. "Um, this might sound weird but, are you free tomorrow?" She asked me. "Why?" I asked. "Would you like to get some coffee with me?" She asked. "Oh, um, I have a girlfriend. I'm sorry." I said. "Oh that's okay." She replied. I gave an awkward smile as I left.
      When I got home, it was almost 1 am but I had to get to work. I got the blanket she made for me and I ripped off a small piece of it and taped it into the scrapbook. I drew an arrow to it and wrote 'the dress she wore when we met :)' and the date. Then, I put our Christmas Polaroid picture in the book. Then, I put yesterdays Polaroid picture in it, too. I smiled and closed it. A part of me wanted to wake her up and show it to her but I also didn't want to wake her, so I crept inside her room and set it on her nightstand and went out.
I sat down on my bed and picked up the book I had just bought, 'Where The Crawdads Sing'. They made a movie about it a last year. I hadn't read the book but now that I saw the movie, I knew what was going to happen. Still, the books are always better than the movies.
         In my mind, I was in the book, I was Tate and Grace was Kya. Only, I didn't have curly blonde hair. In the book, Kya and Tate spend every day together and he gives her feathers for her feather collection and they both study science and things like that. They're a beautiful couple. Then, I remembered the second part of the story: Tate goes off to college, breaks Kya's heart, and she gets with Chase Andrews who's a jerk. That was when I swore to myself to never let anything like that happen to us.