The trouble with love...

Charlie Brown

The day Natalie met Charlie was the same as any other day, except it wasn't. It was worse. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Natalie's alarm didn't go off that morning because her landlord cut her power off because she was two weeks late with rent. She was two weeks late with rent, because her sloppy roommate hadn't given her his half of the rent and she didn't have enough money to pay the full amount on her own. So she woke up late and had to take an icy cold shower. Because she was late, she hadn't had time to prepare her clothes, so her pine tree green, button up shirt was wrinkled, her curly hair was messily thrown into a bun and her face was bear of any makeup. In other words, she looked like a mess. Clumsily grabbing her bag, she rushed out the door and down the street. As she briskly walked into the crowded Starbucks, across the street, a chubby business man, in a black suit, who was exiting the shop bumped into her, spilling his black coffee all over her shirt and jeans, leaving an ugly, brown stain. He began yelling at her to watch where she was going, but she just ignored him and walked out, her coffee craving forgotten.

She ran down the subway and into a train that was just about to close its doors. Standing in the crowded subway car, smelling of coffee and sweat, her already foul mood became fouler. Just then, a bell went off before the hazy voice of the conductor rang from the cheap, subway speaker: "Attention passengers, due to technical difficulties the train will be delayed for about 35 minutes, before stopping in Eastrand, downtown for emergency repairs. Thank you." Groans and complaints immediately rose from passengers as the conductor finished his announcement and the train stopped.

Natalie anxiously glances down at her watch. She's already 15 minutes late. After a tiring 35 minutes, the train moves again, only to stop in the Eastrand station, a whole half an hour away from her office block. She jumps out the train and makes her way across the station, only to see the train for Southrand, downtown leaving. "No!" she shouts and breaks into a sprint, but she's already too late. She sighs, defeated, watching the train leave. The next train doesn't arrive for another 2 hours. Shell never make it to work on time, she might as well now go in today. She sits down on a bench against the wall and puts her head in her hands and cries. These last few weeks have been hard. Too hard. Natalie feels she can't take anymore. This is the fifth time this month she was late and this time her boss, Mr. Wilson, will definitely fire her. Lord knows he's been waiting for a good reason to.

Soon the subway grows quiet, with just a few people milling about. She hears footsteps approach her before they stop. She can feel the stranger standing right in front of her, except they're not. Once she lifts her head, she jerks back. The stranger is crouched down, literally and 4 inches away from her face. "You alright mam?" the stranger asked. It didn't take an Einstein to figure out he was from the south. He had that classic southern accent, the kind cowboys in movies had. Sitting up, she sniffed before wiping away her tears. "Yeah, I'm alright," she croaked, her voice hoarse from crying.

The stranger just gave a small smile, before shaking his head, "you don't look like someone who's alright, now do you." She took a minute to respond. She was still recovering from how nice his smile was, no matter how small it was. "uhm...yeah...I'm...I'm okay, really," she managed to stutter out once she gathered her thoughts. "Are you lost? Do you need directions or something?" she asked, unsure why he was even talking to her. Maybe he was a lost tourist, looking for directions. "No, mam. I just saw a pretty lady in distress and thought I'd come see if you needed some assistance," he said. "Well I'm fine. No damsels in distress here," she said a bit harsher than she intended, before gathering her bags and standing to walk away.

She only took a few steps, before the Texas Stranger {at least she assumed he's from Texas} spoke again. "Rough day?" he yelled out to her. She stopped before turning around, "something like that," she halfheartedly replied. "Well, you know what always cheers me up when I'm having a bad day? Pancakes and a steaming cup of coffee" he said. She threw him a confused look, before, sighing and shaking her head, "I'm not interested. Thank you." He took a step towards her, "come on, now. Everyone needs a little pick me up once in a while," he took another step, "even one from a stranger." He was right in front of her now. It was just then she noticed how handsome he was.

He had sunny, golden blonde hair, the was cut short and the back and sides and was longer in the front and just touched his eyebrows. His crystal blue eyes sparked like the ocean on a hot summers day and his chiseled cheeks a cast rugged shadows against his smooth, shaven face. He gave her a bright smile, showing off his white teeth and deep dimples. He wore a black blazer over a plain white t-shirt and light blue jeans, with black boots. Not your typical cowboy look, but still attractive.

She hesitated a moment before answering, "why would you want to eat pancakes with me? People around here don't just randomly offer other people food, you know." His smile got even brighter, if that was possible. "Well, where I'm from, people help people. That's something I've noticed people around here lack and well... I guess I couldn't leave you looking like you were having a rough day. That wouldn't be very kind of me," came his reply.

"Not a lot of kind people around here," came her answer, "guess not," he said. They both stood staring at one another, both lost in their own thoughts while simultaneously aware of the other. "You know any good pancake places around?" she asked after a long moment of silence. "I happen to know a really good place not far from here," he said, a big smile on his face.

There it was. That one reply lead to a stack of the most amazing pancakes Natalie had ever tasted and the best conversation with Charlie Brown, which lead to movie dates, dinner dates and spontaneous road trip adventures, which lead to changing relationship statuses on Facebook and moving in together, which lead to trips to Blue Lake Montana {where Charlie is from} and meeting the Brown family and awkward, hostile conversations once they saw she was black, which lead to less trips to Blue Lake and a few arguments between Charlie and Natalie, which lead to a 3 week break, which lead to an epic apology {there were horse drawn carriages involved}, which lead to compromises, which lead to more trips to Blue Lake and slightly less awkward and hostile conversations, which eventually lead to now. Another trip to Blue Lake, packed with more awkward conversations {from Charlie's dad} and slightly less hostile conversations {from Charlie's mom}.

All for the handsome stranger she met, just a little over 2 years ago, in the Eastrand downtown subway, on one of the worst days of her life. He made it one of the best days of her life. All of that for Charlie Brown. 

Sorry if some geographical facts are off, I don't live in america and I've never been there, so I basically went off my very basic general knowledge mixed with my creative stupidity. comment any pointers or errors you want me to fix. I'd really appreciate constructive criticism. Thanks.