Lunch Dates

14

The next day was the harvest festival and Natalie was more than excited. She had dressed up in a pair of jeans and a nice yellow top whilst she had pulled her hair into a half up and half down look. She drove her car to the lot and eventually found a place to park before she stopped the car and got out. She looked at the festival and smiled, proud of what her department had accomplished. She made her way into the place and found Andy pretty quickly who was stood with April. He handed her the candy apple and she shared small talk with the pair before she went off to see what else the fair had to offer. There were carriage rides and games and rides like the Ferris wheel which she would definitely get Ben to go on with her later. She wandered about the whole area and played some games and got some snacks before she sat down on a bench where she was soon met with April who sat next to her and placed her head on her lap. Natalie was nervous as first but patted her hair none the less.
"Hey are you okay?" She asks the girl which causes her to sit up.
"No, I told Andy I loved him and he didn't say it back" she tells the girl and Natalie feels automatic sympathy.
"Oh April I'm sorry, I'm sure he really does love you but he was just nervous to say it" she says and April nods before standing up and walking away.
Natalie spent the rest of the afternoon playing games and going on a few rides before it was starting to make its way to five. That's when Chris found her and grabbed her attention.
"Natalie Adderson! Just the girl I was looking for" he says.
"How can I help you Chris?"
"I need to get some things from my office and I wondered if you could come with me" he says and she nods as the pair make their way out to his car.
They spoke about various things as they made their way back to the building and Natalie even found out about Chris's favourite types of music. The pair soon pulled up to the building and started making their way upstairs. When she got there, Chris proceeded to look about for his stuff as Natalie made her way over to the opposite desk and brushed her fingers along Bens plaque on it. She then started looking over his desk having only been up there once and notices the pieces of paper he has lying about until her eyes come across a picture that makes her heart stop. There on the desk was a photo he had taken of her on one of their days out over the past few months. She picks it up and brushes her fingers over it. She couldn't believe he had this on his desk, that he must look up at it almost every day.
"Second drawer" she hears Chris say which causes her to move her head up.
"He calls it his Natalie drawer" he says as she moves around the desk.
She opens it and sees two copies of her CD labelled 'backup' along with movie tickets and receipts from any time they went out. There were photos of the pair and the article from the newspaper that she didn't know he had. Her heart melted as she saw all these things her best friend had kept.
"You know, I'll never forget the first time he had lunch with you" Chris tells her.
"How?"
"He came back into the office with a massive smile on his face and he wouldn't stop talking about how he finally got the chance to talk to the pretty receptionist from parks and recreation. Then I never stopped hearing about you, he was always so excited to see you at lunch and always spoke about how he loved spending time with you, you're his favourite person" he continues.
Natalie feels her stomach swarm with butterflies as Chris tells her all the wonderful things Ben had ever said about her.
"He adores you"
And that was it. Natalie had been waiting so long to have a sign come to her about Ben and here it was in his desk full of things about her.
She walked over to Chris and threw her arms around him as she kissed his cheek which caused him to jump back in shock.
"You have no idea how happy you have just made me" she says as Chris grabs what he needs.
The pair start heading down to the car as Natalie holds onto the high she was feeling. She couldn't stop smiling and Chris took notice of this. They got into the vehicle and started to drive back to the festival as it got dark. The pair sang along to the songs that played on the radio happily before the car suddenly came to a stop.
"Oh my, I think the car just broke down, we're going to be stuck for a while" Chris says as the pair get out of the car.
"It's only a five minute walk, surely we could push the car there" Natalie suggests but this only makes Chris shake his head in response.
"I'm going to have to stay here with the car" he tells her and she shakes her head.
She had to get back to the festival. She had to make sure that she got back to get on that Ferris wheel and tell Ben exactly how she felt. No more waiting around for the right moment.
"I have to go find Benny, thank you for everything Chris" she says as she takes off from the car and starts running back to the festival.
This was her moment and she wasn't going to lose it. She stopped only once on her way there and when she got to the place, she made sure she had a drink and sat down for a minute to think over everything that she had to say because there was just so much. She knew how she had felt for so long and now she had the chance to tell him. She got up and started looking around for anyone she knew, eventually finding Tom who walked over to her as soon as she appeared.
"Hey have you seen Wyatt?" She asks and he nods.
"Yeah he was over by the games area" he responds and she thanks him before racing off to go and find her best friend.