THE ONE

“And there you are, the Michael Anderson Special!” I rolled my eyes as Micheal set the plate in front of me. Three years of dating and almost one year of marriage, and one-eyed jacks were still the only thing Michael could cook. He kissed the top of my head and sat down across the table from me. I picked up my fork and started to cut the toast and eat it in small slow bites. Normally, I am hungry for breakfast. I didn’t know if it was all the weird dreams lately, or eggs, again, that had me gagging down my breakfast.

I took a sip of coffee and just let the rest of my plate go untouched. “So, Michael, what do you want to do for our anniversary?”

He looked up, surprised. “What, did you forget?” He shook his head emphatically. “No, it’s just that you are amazing at planning things, so I thought you already had an idea cooking.”

“I may have ideas, but I still want your input and help,” I said with a little more attitude than I intended. Michael didn’t notice my tone. He grinned. “Especially after last year. No shoes.” He shook his head and finished the last of his toast. “You would think it would be easy to find sandals in a beach town in California.”

“It was easy. They were just expensive.” I don’t know why we have to bring this up every time we talk about vacations. After a year, I thought this would have died out of conversation. Nope. This might just be Michael’s favorite “Jess is human” story.

“Yeah. I don’t think buying a pair of Chacos or Birkenstocks was worth it for a week. When am I going to wear those here?”

“I don’t know. That’s why we didn’t buy them. But that still doesn’t answer my question.” Sometimes it was so hard to keep Michael on track.

Michael leaned back in his chair.

“We could always go to the Ark Encounter.” He laughed.

“That’s not necessarily something you do for an anniversary.” I shook my head and finished my coffee. “I’m sure I’ll think of something. Do you have a cap on the budget. That might help me, if I know how much we want to spend this year.”

“Why don’t you use our tax return? We can make that a tradition. Every year, our tax return goes to celebrating our anniversary. Even if that means we don’t ‘celebrate’ on the actual day.”

“That’s a really good idea. I’ll look into that when I’m done with the rest of the things I want to do today. Might be a great way to relax this evening when you get home from work.”

“Great. It’s settled then. Speaking of work, I need to get going. Thank you for letting me make you breakfast.” He checked the time on the stove. He was running a little behind his normal schedule, but wouldn’t be late if he left soon.

“Thank you.”

“Jess, are you feeling alright?” Michael asked as he stood up and grabbed his plate from the table, noticing that I didn’t finish mine. “I don’t know. I think I’m fine. Probably just the dreams I’ve been having lately.”

“Dreams?” He placed his plate and fork in the sink, and came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Yeah, I haven’t been sleeping that well lately, so that’s probably why I’m not hungry. It’s really no big deal. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? If you aren’t feeling well, I can stay home from work.”

“No, no, I’m fine. Besides, it is Friday, so we’ll have all weekend anyway. I’ll take it easy...” tomorrow after I get the house cleaned today.

“I don’t believe you. Well, call me if you need anything.” He kissed the top of my head, and walked out the door.

I looked at my unfinished breakfast, disappointed that I wasn’t hungry. It must just be the eggs. Lately eggs had been bothering me. Living on one full-time income and the crazy and fluctuating salary of a freelance editor, eggs were the cheapest protein option for us, and we ate them all the time. Around the same time that the dreams started coming regularly, I had an aversion to eggs.

Was it the eggs themselves, or the habit? Maybe if we ate more variety for breakfast, it wouldn’t bother me. I looked at the notebook, still sitting on the table. Nothing I had tried so far had worked to stop the dreams. It had been three weeks now, and I had tried not eating right before bed, drinking more water and making sure I get in at least a little exercise every day, and writing the dreams down as soon as I woke up. They still kept coming.

I shook my head as I got up from the table and brought my plate and fork to the sink. I threw away the leftovers, and thought about how nice it would be to have a dog who would eat the scraps from my plate, just like when I was a kid. But Michael and I couldn’t really afford the time a pet would take. Maybe once my editing career took off. I’d be home all day anyways, and we had talked about getting a dog before we had kids, kind of like a trial run. We had both come from families with fairly different parenting styles, so I knew it would take a lot of time and communication to agree on how we wanted to raise kids. If we could ever come to an agreement on when to start and how many to have.

I rinsed off my dishes and placed them in the empty dishwasher. By tonight it would be full and after supper we would run it, and Michael would unload it so that I could spend all day tomorrow loading it. Just repeating the cycle again. Breakfast, work, chores, supper, sleep, breakfast…

I rolled my eyes and sighed. I rinsed off Michael’s plate and loaded it. Since day one, Michael put his dirty dishes into the sink. No matter how many times I ask him to rinse them and stack them on the counter, or better yet, load them in the dishwasher, they still end up in the sink.

The rest of the kitchen was pretty clean. I grabbed the notebook off the table and made my way upstairs. Michael had made the bed, which was very nice of him. He joked that it was the price he paid for sleeping in. The bed and the dishes were really the only chores Michael helped out with, except for keeping the yard looking nice. Those were also the only chores he had done growing up, and since he worked all day, I figured I could look after the house. Still, some days it would be nice to have a little extra help.

The room was small for a master bedroom, but this was a small house, and we didn’t anticipate it being our forever home. It was the perfect size for us right now, just starting out. I changed and folded my pajamas and placed them on my pillow, ready for tonight. Michael’s clothes from yesterday were still on the floor of his side, so I put them in the hamper. Maybe I’d get to the laundry today. One less thing to do tomorrow. I couldn’t tell which would be better, to spare my energy today, or get everything done so that it didn’t matter if I didn’t have energy for tomorrow?

Or, have energy for both days with enough coffee. I grabbed my planner off of the dresser and headed back downstairs to make myself a fresh pot.