Still Here Loving You | ✓

| 16 |

R-18

I woke up in bed without Grayson by my side. Knowing him, that is weird and bizarre. I flung the blanket off me and sat on the edge of the bed. Blinking slowly, I reached for my phone and water bottle on my nightstand.

As I drank water, I checked the time. It was half past eight in the morning. My eyes widened a little. Grayson's jet lag must be that bad because he never really wakes up before noon.

I need to be at the office at eleven. I have an event today around two and I still need to do some last minute things for it. I ran my hands through my face. I really don't want to go to work today.

Without bothering to make my bed, I stepped out of my room and the smell of food cooking hit my nose. I skipped my way down the stairs and saw him humming in the kitchen while cooking.

"Am I hallucinating or are you actually up before me?" I said out loud making him jump a little.

"Jesus, Maureen!" He exclaimed, making me laugh. "I didn't notice you coming down."

I settled myself on the kitchen stool. "So what's for breakfast?"

"Pancakes." He replied, flipping one and catching it with the pan. "And the muffins are still in the oven."

"Impressive." I complimented him. "You should've gone to culinary school instead."

"If all fails, maybe I will." He chuckled. "But that's highly unlikely."

I let him do his job while I sat there quietly just enjoying watching him move around my kitchen. Maybe this could be a sight I could get used to. I snapped a picture of him once before putting my phone down like nothing happened.

Grayson plated the pancakes before sliding the plate on the counter over to me. I let out an aww when I saw the pancakes he gave me were heart shaped ones.

"Did I pass the test?" Grayson asked, leaning over the counter across from me. I nodded my head and gave him a thumbs up. He let out a small laugh as he brought his thumb near my lips and brushed the sides of it.

"Oh, by the way," I began, swallowing my food first before continuing. "Janette has a house warming party tomorrow, are you free?"

"You want me to come?" He looked surprised with my question.

My mind went into the gutter with the wording of his sentence.

Erasing those thoughts from my mind, I cleared my throat. "I asked you, didn't I? She asked me to bring you, but I said probably not because I thought you might be busy. I was being considerate to you."

He smiled knowingly. "You know I'm always going to be available for you. I would love to go tomorrow. I'm going to be working for a few days anyways."

My heart just melted a little.

"Okay, great! I have a lot of events back to back this week, so you can pick me up tomorrow night here and we'll drive down there together." I said, pointing a knife in his direction. "Also, if you can, contribute something to my housewarming gift basket."

"Yeah, sure. I'll think about something to bring her." He said.

The housewarming gift basket I put together was a bunch of kitchen and cleaning supplies and a prayer plant that I bought when I went to visit my mom at work. She told me it's a hard to kill plant, but we will see how long its lifespan is.

Grayson and I finished our breakfast. He was still eating when I finished with mine, so I cleaned for a bit and heated up my leftovers from last night for my lunch later. After that, I got ready for work.