Spring Day

twelve

chapter twelve ~ the one with the proposal
Heather's POV

The week started better than I thought it would because now that Mom had gone on her book tour and we had rekindled our relationship, I was happy to report that I didn't feel sad anymore. Now that I knew my family struggles were over, it gave me a new outlook on life and it made me more open towards Carl. He was still working like mad, but twice this week already we had managed to sit down to dinner and enjoy ourselves. It was like something had switched in his head and he realised that he needed to treat me as well as he had when we first got together. I wasn't complaining and neither were my friends, they had all complimented me this week and had noticed how happy I had become because of these changes. I didn't know how lucky I was to be in this situation now but I was glad that I had Carl, my family and my friends to make things better.

To make my day even better, Monica came around to my apartment with a free lasagne. She told me that she made a dozen for her Aunt but then received a phone call that her Aunt needed vegetarian ones and now she was trying to get rid of all these lasagnes. I was more than happy to take it off her hands because I knew how good Monica's cooking was and I always loved tasting the things that she had experimented with. In my head, I was more than excited for tonight because if I reheated this lasagne then I could create a nice romantic dinner for me and Carl; helping him to relax when he got home from work. Usually I wouldn't be this bold with my planning but when he left this morning, he told me that he wanted to talk over dinner tonight, so this was the perfect meal to have.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the apartment because I wanted everything to be perfect for this romantic dinner that we were having tonight. I even managed to find a white tablecloth that we kept for special occasions and lay it over the table, decorating the room with candles so that it would feel more romantic than usual. To top it off, I got changed into one of the dresses that I wore when we first started dating. It was a tight blue dress that I only wore for special occasions but I had worn it when Carl asked me out on our first date; we had gone to a fancy restaurant and in a way, I was trying to recreate that atmosphere in our apartment. Because maybe if I recreated the atmosphere, then the feelings would be recreated as well. I popped the lasagne in the oven and made sure that it would be ready when Carl got home. Then I checked my hair and makeup were perfect before waiting patiently for the click of the lock, which would signal that he was home.

"Hey, Heather, are you home?" He called as he pushed open the door and was shocked to see what I had done to the apartment. I hoped that it was a good shocked because he froze in the doorway for a moment.

Just as I was about to speak, the timer started beeping which told me that the lasagne was finished and luckily for me, it was right on time because now he could eat as soon as he got home. I felt like some kind of 1950's housewife and I knew that I should love doing this, providing for my partner and making him feel comfortable after a long day of work but I didn't like it. In fact, I hated doing all of the work, but I tried to fight that feeling away because tonight was a romantic dinner and I couldn't ruin it with my Feminist brain. Carl was still stood in the doorway as I pulled the lasagne out of the oven and placed the dish on the tablecloth, making sure that it fit perfectly before stepping away from the table and checking that it looked the way that I wanted it to.