In a lifetime

Chapter 26: Joseph Flores

I haven't felt this much peace in so long. The cold comfort of my bed and the fact that both sides of my pillows were cold just made everything better.

I woke up with a better start to the day than I ever do. I felt I could pull off overalls so that's what I put on and went downstairs to make some breakfast.

I put on my headphones to enjoy my time cooking, playing "Addicted to you" by Shakira and occasionally popping out a move here and there.

Almost finishing up I can feel Daniel wrap his hands around my waist swaying with me. A few minutes pass and we laugh and I signal him to grab plates.

Taking out my headphones he says "what's got you in a good mood?" I smile at him and say "I don't know, maybe today's a good day"

We sit down and eat and Daniel suggests an idea, "you know I really want to get to know Natalie a little bit more and I thought it would be fun if we had a double date, you, me and her and her boyfriend, what do you think?"

He seems so content with the idea and normally I would be iffy about a double date but I completely feel fine about it, "yeah we should definitely do that, want me to let her know?" I ask and he shakes his head saying he's got it handled.

He offers to wash the dishes since I made breakfast and I relax on the couch. I think I must've taken a nap because when I open my eyes I see that it's already 3:23 pm. Damn what a great nap.

Eli drops by because he was bored but he also had Veronica with him. "Um, are you okay? You seem more laid back than usual" Veronica says and I guess she's right but all I can say is I'm having a good day, "yeah I'm good and me and Daniel got a double date so we're heading out, catch you two later" I say and wait for Daniel to head over to the spot at the park him and Natalie had agreed on meeting. 

"You know they are kinda right, you are acting kind of different than usual, I mean not in a bad way but are you sure you want to do this, I don't want to make it seem like I'm forcing you," he says and I reassure him that I'm fine with it and we spot Natalie and her boyfriend Max waiting at the spot with picnic items.

"Well if it isn't the two love birds," I say cheerfully and Natalie responds "I could say the same about you two"

We all sit down setting everything up and get the little sandwiches they had ready. "So How did you two meet," Daniel asks and while Max had his hands busy still trying to get everything perfect, Natalie responds "we had Spanish class together and I helped around the basketball games so we saw each other more often and we started talking and then yeah we starting going out"

She seems so happy that she finally found someone good for her, "you make it sound like it was by coincidence when we both know you were obsessed" immediately after saying that I look at Natalie with a sorry look. I don't even know why I said that like I didn't think I just said it.

"Sorry I didn't mean it like that, your just a very passionate person," I say trying to save the small mess I made and she catches on "nice save," she says.

I feel bad, I'll make it up to her by not making this worse.

Natalie pulls out a speaker and says "look, eating and all is fine but we gotta have some fun" putting the speaker on the picnic table playing "Eres mía" by Romeo Santos, she gets up offering her hand to Max and looking at me to signal that she isn't going to do this alone.

I smile and get up as well with Daniel. Around the open spot next to us we all dance together, some messing up trying to move and we laugh. Some of the old couples around say "how sweet" and "look how cute" to the fact we're sharing this moment dancing together in public. I've never done anything like this before but it's refreshing. As the song comes to an end we sit back down still laughing and smiling.