Out of the Morning and Into the Night

Time lapse: 13 months

The sun began shining brightly through the window of the house, revealing the beautiful Huntington Beach sunrise. I rolled over, trying to force myself back to sleep, but was unsuccessful. I looked over at the clock, grumbling a few colorful words when the clock only read 6:30am. Snuggling up to Zacky always works, I remembered, rolling over, only to find an empty bed.

A few months ago, Zacky invited me to move in with him, since we had already been dating for a couple months. My parents were sad to see me finally move out over so many years, but they knew I was happy, so they easily let me go.

Where the hell did that man go, I wondered, since after all, it was only 6:30 in the morning.

After a few minutes, the aroma of coffee lingered into the room, which made me immediately sit up. I can’t go a day without a cup of coffee in the morning to keep me going. I immediately knew he was in the kitchen, so I tip toed down the stairs, wanting to sneak up on him.

When I saw him in the kitchen cooking breakfast, I was amazed. He is too cute, I swear. I crept up behind him, wrapping my arms around his stomach, startling him.

“Mmm, good morning baby,” he said sheepishly, obviously still wanting to be in bed. “Why are you up so early? I didn’t expect you to get up for about another hour or so.”

“I smelled coffee. You KNOW how I am when it comes to coffee!” I smiled, kissing him on the shoulder.

“Yeah, I know I know. Sometimes, I think you love that damn coffee more than you love me,” he mumbled, pouting while doing so.

“Babe, you know that’s not true. I love you far more than coffee. Coffee can’t kiss me, or hold me the way you do-“

He cut me off, turning around to give me a passionate kiss. This lasted a few moments more, until he pulled away.

“You know I’m only joking with you,” he laughed, “besides, coffee can’t cook you this delicious breakfast, either.” He pointed to the stove where he was currently scrambling some eggs.

“Awh, babe, you didn’t have to,” I reminded him.

“Yes, I know, but after all, it’s our one year anniversary, and I wanted to do something special for you, since you always do something special for me.” Awh, my Zacky, he has made me the happiest girl in the world, I sighed, smiling.

“WAIT!” I stopped for a second. “I’ve got something for you!” I quickly unwound my arms from around his midsection and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs, tripping on the way up. “Ooof. Damnit!” I cursed as I landed with a thud. I could hear Zacky laughing at me from the kitchen. “You better not be laughing at me, babe, or else you don’t get your present!” I heard his footsteps trailing out of the kitchen. When I turned around, he was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, arms crossed across his chest.

“It’s sweet of you to get me a gift, but I don’t need anything. I’ve got you, and that’s all I need,” he smiled, blowing me a kiss before returning to the kitchen to finish up breakfast. I smiled to myself, picking myself up off the stairs to continue on to our bedroom, where I had hidden his present.

He was pretty oblivious to his surroundings, so I didn’t have to think too hard of a place to hide it. I quickly grabbed the wrapped presents and headed back down the stairs, paying careful attention as to where I was putting my feet so I wouldn’t fall once again.
As I walked into the dining room to set his presents down on the table, he came walking out with two plates full of food.

“Baby,” he said slowly, “I told you not to get me anything!” He sat the plates down on the table and quickly came over to embrace me in a hug, putting a kiss on the top of my head. We sat down and ate in silence until we were done.

Once he finished the last bite of his breakfast, I pushed his gifts toward him as he let out a sigh.

“Alrighty, fine. I’ll open them, just for you,” he said, finally giving in. As he slowly unwrapped each gift, the smile on his face grew bigger and bigger, causing me to smile along with him. By the time he was finished unwrapping his gifts, it looked like his jaw was hurting from how big he had been smiling. “This was everything I wanted,” I barely heard him whisper.

“Aha! Caught you! You said you didn’t want anything!” I poked him, laughing.

“I know, I mean, there’s things that I wanted, but baby, you didn’t have to do this for me,” he looked down at the table, pointing at all his gifts. Suddenly, he got extremely quiet.
“I have something for you as well,” he spoke seriously, reaching into his pocket, pulling something out of it that I couldn’t see past the table. Once he stood up from where he was sitting, I saw he had a little blue box in his hand.

I wonder what could be in that blue box…I skimmed my brain for every idea possible before he got down one knee.

OH MY FUCKING GOD, IT’S AN ENGAGEMENT RING! I screamed in my head, trying to contain my tears until he started talking.

“Baby, we’ve been together for a while. We’ve gone through everything together, and everything we’ve done has only brought us closer together. I would love more than anything to share my life with you. Will you marry me?” Once he opened that little blue box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring, all the tears came flooding over the edge of my eyes.

“Yes, I do,” I sobbed, tears of joy and excitement. He gently grabbed my left hand, kissing it softly as he slid the ring onto my finger. I held up my hand to admire it, “It’s…beautiful,” I stuttered. “Just like you,” he whispered, kissing me lightly on the lips.

Just then, the phone rang.

“Great way to ruin the moment,” I said walking over and picking it up as Zacky chuckled from behind me.

“Hello?” I asked.

“MORGAN!” Roxine screamed into the receiver. “BRIAN JUST ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM!”

“NO WAY! ZACKY JUST PROPOSED TO ME!” We started screaming excitedly, Zacky almost
falling out of the chair he had just sat down in from laughing at me jumping up and down like a five year old in the kitchen.

“So when’s your wedding?” Roxine asked, anxious to hear my reply.

“We haven’t picked a day yet. What about yours and Brian’s?” I questioned. I heard Brian pick up the phone.

“Hey, is Zacky there?” he asked while me and Rox were still talking.

“Zacky baby, pick up the other receiver, Brian wants to talk to you.”

“Hey man,” he answered seconds later.

“Hey, we’re gonna come by later today and make wedding plans, does that sound good?” Brian said to Zacky.

“Sure thing, bro, just call before you come over,” he answered.

“WAIT, are we having a double wedding?!” Roxine shrieked, obviously excited.

“Sure are, baby,” Brian answered her question, which left us both screaming again.

“Well, I’m gonna go start getting ready if you two are coming over shortly, we’ll see you later,” I concluded, hanging up my handset. I ran over to Zacky and jumped on his laps, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I love you babe, so much,” I stated before kissing him too.

“I love you too hun, more than anything,” he told me, kissing me again.

We made our way up to the bathroom to take a shower, getting ready for a long day of wedding planning with our best friends.