New Beginnings: A Hessa Story (2)

Chapter 41: Hardin

I wake up to the smell of bacon filling my nose. I squint my eyes at the harsh sunlight coming from the window because I forgot to put the blinds down last night. I was rather... occupied last night. I look over at the clock, and it's 9:30, and I am alone in bed. I can only assume the smell of bacon is from Tessa cooking. When I take the comforter off my body, I am fucking freezing. I fell asleep in my underwear last night, but New York winter mornings are relentlessly cold. There is frost covering the corners of our bedroom window as proof that it's probably ten degrees below freezing outside. I put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants before I head out, and turn the heat up to warm the house up.

As I make my way to the kitchen, I hear the faint sound of Frank Sinatra playing, and I know that Tessa is cooking. She always listens to him when in the kitchen, saying that her mother used to play his music while she cooked. When I step in, my eyes widen at all the food laid out on the counter. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, french toast, fruit... Tessa went all fucking out for the two of us.

"Good morning!" She smiles at me. Tessa is fully dressed in a sweater dress with wool tights, and only she would be so put together this early in the morning.

"What's with all the food? You think you and I are going to eat all of this?" I walk over to her as she places more pieces of bread on the pan. I swiftly kiss her cheek.

"Of course not, your mum and Mike are coming over for breakfast in about twenty minutes before their flight."

"What? I thought they left already."

"No, they went to a hotel last night to give us some... privacy... on our wedding night." She smirks, and I smile too at the memories of last night.

"Oh..." I take a piece of french toast off the plate, and Tessa scolds me. She's acting like there isn't enough food for everyone.

"Go get dressed, they're gonna be here soon." She shoos me off playfully.

I walk back to my room to get dressed, aka just put on a new pair of underwear and some pants. I hate getting dressed when I don't need to, it's honestly so fucking infuriating, but if it makes Tessa happy, then I guess it isn't too bad. I attempt to tame my hair with a comb, but it's refusing to fucking cooperate with me. I don't know why the smallest things are making me aggravated right now, but I want to rip the one piece of my hair that won't fucking stay down out of my head.

"Fuck this." I whisper to myself as I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I open the medicine cabinet to retrieve my morning toothpaste, but to my fucking convenience, the toothpaste is empty. This morning just keeps getting better, I swear.

"Tess!" I scream from the bathroom, but she doesn't answer. "Tessa!" I open the door so she can hear me better.

"Yeah?" She yells back.

"I'm out of toothpaste, is there anymore?"

"Check the drawers in the bathroom!" She yells and I scramble to find some more toothpaste, opening all of the drawers. Nope, no toothpaste.

"It's not in the drawers!"

"Just use your nighttime toothpaste." Tessa yells again. "And make it quick, they're gonna be here any minute."

Fuck! I am weird in that I use two different toothpastes. I honestly don't know why I do, but I like to use a stronger toothpaste during the day than at night. I don't like messing up that routine.

"Wait, there may be some in our bedroom. I swear I bought some a couple weeks ago." Tessa says. I really fucking hope so.

I open all the drawers in our bedroom, sifting through all the crap in them to see if there are any more tubes of toothpaste. I open up my drawer, and thankfully Tessa was right. There is a whole package of them, but on top of them is a familiar looking piece of paper. I pick up the folded paper, and I already forgot that it was in my bedside table.