Friends And Lovers

By: Stephanie Woodworth

Nathalie Parker’s typical commute home was worse than normal today. The traffic was terrible and when it finally thinned out she found herself being pulled over. All I want is a soak in a warm bath.

Nat opened her purse pulled out her driver’s license and then reached into the glove box for the registration. She had both ready for the officer when he walked up to the car.

“Do you know how fast you were going?” the officer asked in a stern voice.

“No,” she replied removing her sunglasses.

“Let me run your license and I’ll be right back.”

Hell he didn’t even tell me how fast I was driving! Nat laid her head back against the seat and wondered why this had to happen to her. Nat saw the officer walking up beside her car and sat back up.

“Ma’am, I’m going to let you off with just a warning today.”

“Thank you,” Nat said sighing in relief.

“Please keep your speed down and have a safe trip home.”

Nat waited for the office to walk away before pulling back into the rush hour traffic. With her warning in hand she continued on to her beautiful home that she shared with her boyfriend of a year.

Nat’s life was far from normal, for her boyfriend was none other than Lance Bass from NSYNC.

They’d met through mutual friends and although they didn’t get along at first a deep friendship formed which eventually blossomed into a romance. It was now six months later and life couldn’t be better for them.

Lance was busy with his first movie and recording his next album with NSYNC while Nat was finishing her master’s degree.

She still wasn’t used to going home to an empty house, but lately Lance was gone more than he was home. It was something she knew she’d have to deal with when she started dating Lance.

By the time she finally pulled into the drive Nat wanted nothing more that to undress and soak in a warm bath.

The house looked unusually dark as she parked her car. She grabbed her backpack and locked the car.

Strange, she thought as she walked to the front door. There was a piece of paper taped to the screen door. Nat opened the plain white paper and read.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Sorry I couldn’t be there myself but I’ve got a great surprise for you. Go to the basement for the first part.

Nat grinned. She’d forgotten that today was their anniversary. Six months ago they started officially dating.

She unlocked the door and dropped her bag on her way to the basement. The lights were all off except for a candle lit on the bar at the far end of the room. Lying on the bar were three long stem white roses and another note.

For more of your surprise go to the kitchen.

As much as she loved Lance she was tired and just wanted a bath. Oh maybe he had someone cook dinner for me, she wondered running up the stairs to the kitchen.

She gasped at the sight on the table. Tons of candles graced the surface of the table. As she walked up to it she noticed that the candles spelled out “I Love You” and were intertwined with red rose petals. Instead of thinking how lucky she was or even how romantic it all was Nat worried that the candles were burning for a long time and could have caused a fire. She didn’t give it a second thought when she found three more roses and yet another note.

For your final gift go to the living room.

Nat added the last three roses to the others she carried and turned to go to the living room. She’d just walked through it minutes before to get to the basement and could have sworn that there wasn’t anything unusual about the room.

She went to flip on the light switch but stopped when the stereo system came to life.

“Hello?” she said feeling kind of silly talking to an empty room.

A figure emerged from the shadows and struck a match lighting a candle on a nearby table. As the room filled with light Nat saw Lance standing by the table.

“Hello Nat,” he said with a sweet smile.

“I thought you were in Canada.”

“I wanted to surprise you.” He pulled one more rose from behind his back. “Nathalie, will you marry me?” he simply asked as their song began to play softly on the stereo. Before she could answer Lance put the roses down on the table so that they could dance to their song.

Love is real, real is love … Love is feeling, feeling love … Love is wanting to be loved

Love is touch, touch is love … Love is reaching, reaching love … Love is asking to be loved

Love is you … You and me … Love is knowing … We can be

Love is free, free is love … Love is living, living love … Love is needing to be loved

As the song’s last few notes played Lance leaned down to kiss Nathalie. She smiled up at him. “I love you, Lance.”

“Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

“Yes. Yes I’ll marry you!”

They kissed again sealing their love and their fate.

The End

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