Road trip

28- must have been the whiskey

We had been driving for hours and aside from the gas station stops for food and gas, Austin had been singing in his own one man show the whole ride. It was cute, even if he wasn't the best singer.

I had relented and let him listen to country as we hit Virginia, and my heart swooned when he would sing sappy love songs to me, kissing my hand every now and then. I was lucky and I knew it. I only hoped that I wouldn't run out of luck.

We made the decision to make the whole thirteen hour drive in one day so that we could get to Nashville and have two nights rather than one, a decision that sounded better than it was when you were sat down for a long period of time.

I stole a glance at him as we hit the mountain roads through North Carolina towards Tennessee. He looked happy, completely relaxed as his lips moved with the lyrics of some new country singer I didn't know the name of.

I joined in when Carrie Underwood came on shortly after. I had been around Austin enough to know some of the country songs and Carrie was one that I loved.

"I love when you sing." He grinned over at me as we made our way through Knoxville.

I felt my face flush as he laughed. "Thanks."

"You have a good voice, maybe I'm biased because I'd love it even if your voice was terrible." He chuckled as I fake scoffed.

We continued to tease each other the rest of the way to Nashville and when we got there Austin had me look up hotels. We opted for a modest hotel at the comfort suites near the airport. It was outside of the city, but the proximity made it easy to get an Uber or taxi to the city if we didn't want to drive.

Once we got to our room we settled in and rather than rush to go out, we opted for a nice night in since we were exhausted from the drive. I opened the fridge in the room to put some of our sodas in, only to see a half full bottle of whiskey sitting on the top shelf.

"Should we?" I smirked flashing the bottle at Austin.

"Anna we don't know who that belonged too." He shook his head as I grabbed two glasses.

"Come on, live a little." I grinned pouring some in a glass and taking a sip, scrunching my face as the unique bitter taste hit my taste buds and the alcohol burned down my throat.

I didn't stop there though, I continued to drink until I felt as light as a feather. Austin was enjoying my carefree attitude as I sank into his arms on the bed and let my drunk brain ramble about everything and anything.

"You know, I didn't like you at first." I admitted without a care in the world.

"Really?" He teased.

"Yup." I popped the P, thinking it sounded cute when it probably just made me sound more drunk.

His hand was rubbing my arm up and down as I continued on my story time.

"I thought you were going to steal Molly from me and I hated it, but then you just kind of molded into our duo. Then I guess I thought you were okay?"

"What about now?" He asked as a wave of exhaustion hit me and my eyes began to close.

"Now you scare me. I've never loved someone like this before, someone I see my whole future with. I just don't think I'll make it if this doesn't work." I let the darkness take over as he said something that sounded like "you're all I want in my future"

The next morning I woke up alone, my head hurt with a dull ache and I knew that drinking had been a bad decision on my part.

Austin walked in a few moments later with  a take out container full of breakfast food.

"I brought you breakfast." He smiled handing me the container before kissing my forehead.

I smiled up at him and opened the container, placing the bacon in my mouth and letting out a moan of satisfaction when the salt eased my headache.

"Thank you." I smiled at him, eating quickly so we could go out and explore.

We opted for a taxi into Nashville, deciding that parking for the whole day was too much effort. Our first stop was something I had planned just for him on this trip, the country music hall of fame.

I watched him happily as we walked through the museum of old country music replicas, stopping to read the little boards of information about all the singers who were able to make it, while Austin smiled like he had been waiting his whole life to experience this very moment.

'Dork' I thought to myself, but at least he was my dork. After, we grabbed a nice lunch before we walked down the main strip of Nashville.

"So I want you to come sing karaoke with me tonight?" He grinned as we continued to walk hand in hand.

"I'll watch you sing Karaoke." I countered as he let out a chuckle.

"We will see." He pulled me along with him and I knew he wasn't going to let me out of whatever plan he had for this evening. "But first, I have a surprise."

That's when he pulled me into a cab as we rode to an airport of some kind. After paying the cab driver her took my hand and pulled me over to the building that advertised helicopter tours and I let my jaw drop.

"A helicopter ride?" I asked.

"Surprise." He held his hands up, splaying his fingers.

"I love you so much!" I practically jumped on him as I kissed all over his face.

"Love you too, let's go before we miss our time slot."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as we listened to the instructions intently before climbing into the helicopter with the pilot.

My hand was wrapped in Austin's as the helicopter took off and we soared above the city, which was now beginning to light up as the sun set on the horizon.

"I love you!" I mouthed to him squeezing his hand as I looked down in awe.

"Love you more." He responded as the ride began its course back to the airport.

We thanked the pilot and then called and Uber to get us back to the city. I was still very much suffering from the adrenaline of the helicopter ride as my heart pounded and I looked over at Austin.

I was so lucky to have him in my life, and at that moment when his eyes caught mine and crinkled into a smile I realized that there was nothing I wouldn't do for him.

During this trip I had fallen hard, and as much as I tried to fight it, the butterflies I felt when he looked at me told me that I would never feel this way for anyone else ever.

My whole heart was his, and it forever would be.