✔️ Midnight Sparks『 T.H. 』✧･ﾟ:*

Chapter 27: The ties that bind...

Remember that feeling we had from the start

Back when love was nothing more than a thought

I want that one thing that won't ever fall apart, it could be us

- Great Good Fine Ok & Emily Burns

- - -

I adjusted my slouchy black wool hat as we took a slow walk around the shops in Warren's town center.

Tom watched me, smiling, as he finished up his snow cone that I got him from a stand close to Café Luna.

Once I dropped my arms back to my side, he reached for my left gloved hand.

It was a perfect December 26th, walking hand in hand with someone I loved as we made our way down a street that I'd known since I was a child. The shops with the large display windows, the cobblestone paths – they all seemed entirely different today. I realized that they hadn't actually changed, but I had.

Up ahead, Jayna and Harrison were talking up a storm. I could hear their easy laughter and see their twin blond heads bopping cheerily.

"Those two are so cute," Tom commented with a chuckle.

"Yeah, and you, Mr Cupid, can claim credit for paving the way for the lovebirds," I said. My mind floated back to the night of Blake Lively's movie premiere, where Jayna and I met Harrison for the first time when he came looking for Tom at the back room.

"They were flirting shamelessly since the minute they met," Tom recalled.

"While you and I were exchanging eye-rolls, feeling second-hand embarrassment for our respective best friend."

"Good times that night. Especially our movie date later on."

I threw Tom a sideways glance. "Was it a date?"

Tom feigned shock, gasping, "Wasn't it?"

I scrunched up my nose. "I couldn't be sure that it was. You kept giving mixed signals."

"Well, how about this for a signal?" Tom stopped us in mid-stride on the sidewalk, pulling me in and planting a kiss firmly on my lips.

"Mm I dunno. It's still kinda vague," I teased, which prompted Tom to kiss me again, more deeply this time. I kissed him back hungrily, but abruptly pulled away two seconds later when I remembered how we had bumped into some fans of his the last time we were walking the streets here.

"What is it? Coffee breath?" Tom asked, blowing out a puff of air into one cupped hand.

I laughed. "No, I just don't want to break any hearts – in case any of your fans are around today too."

"That's what this cap is for, right?" Tom tipped his Under Armour cap. "It transforms me into a perfectly ordinary person taking a stroll in lovely Warren town."

"Yeah, it's just like how nobody realized that Clark Kent was Superman because of his glasses."

"Exactly."

I wanted to see if Jayna and Harrison were still in front of us, and observed that they had stopped walking too. They appeared to be talking to an elderly woman with her snow-white hair tied in a bun.

"Oh hey, Jayna and Harrison are with someone. I think it's old Mrs Mooney."

"Should we go say hi too?"

"Why not. In the spirit of the day after Christmas. Let's go."

When Tom and I showed up, Mrs Mooney beamed at us and exclaimed, "Hello dear! Merry Christmas. Who is your gentleman friend here?"