As anyone who's ever read a love story knows, the wedding is usually the last chapter of the book. But in a real love story, there's so much more to be told. So much happens in the happily ever after. And that’s what the sequel is for: to tell the story of two people as husband and wife as they live and grow together. So here are pages from our sequel.
THE VANISHING BREAD
The smell of cooked bacon was already fading from the kitchen when Ryan asked me to make his grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. After putting my dinner plate in the sink, I opened the door to the pantry and reached for the bread. But it wasn’t there.
“I don’t see the bread, Ryan.”
“Are we out?” he asked, looking up from the fish tank.
“No. I had toast this morning and we had half of a loaf left.”
Ryan smirked. “Did the pregnant lady put the bread somewhere weird?”
It was like he had been waiting for this very moment. Several times over the last few months I had caught myself opening the fridge or pantry or even the trash can to put an item where it didn’t belong. But a quick glance over the kitchen didn’t reveal the loaf of bread. It wasn’t on a different pantry shelf. It wasn’t inside the fridge or in the trash can. Ryan checked the cabinets, under the sink, and even inside the dishwasher. And then he expanded his search.
As he went upstairs to check our room, which is where I had gone to finish getting ready after eating my toast, I knew he wasn’t going to find the bread. There was no way that I had set a loaf of bread down in our bedroom. We would have found it earlier in the day.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, he was back downstairs and checking the kitchen cabinets again.
“You’re just going to have to go to the store and buy another loaf,” I told him.
But Ryan was invested in the search now. He was determined to find it and post my hilarious mistake on Instagram. Besides if he didn’t find it, he reminded me, it would be like that time we got a cookie tin down from the top of the fridge and discovered 6 month old moldy Valentine’s Day cookies inside. And I sure didn’t like the idea of finding a super moldy loaf of bread somewhere in a few weeks.
Finally, Ryan decided to empty the pantry. After he cleared through the plastic tubs and stacks of cloth grocery bags that cover the floor of our little pantry, he discovered the bread. Not in an exciting and humorous spot like he had hoped. It had merely fallen off of the shelf.
I smiled in triumph. My brain was apparently still intact.
Pages from the Sequel:
Return from Jamaica
The Little Blue House
The Ugly Yellow House
The Flea Episode
The Bathroom Leak
The Dinner Disaster
Baby on Board
The Story of Lucy
The Vanishing Bread
Midnight Dance with Darcy
Nighttime Feedings
Our David & Goliath Moment
Beach Day
I Love You