Detour

57: Oops, I...

Cole and I decided to spend our remaining days here with Nanna and Astrid.

After saying goodbye to the wonderful people I met the first day I came here, Cole, Nanna, and I stroll in the Royal Mile, seeing the most beautiful views of townhouses, churches, historic landmarks, shops, inns, museums, cafés, and restaurants. When we got really tired, we decided to eat lunch in The Inn on the Mile. The charming boutique hotel features a restaurant that's popular with guests and locals alike and known to serve great locally sourced dishes. It was a wonderful lunch except that Astrid and Jay went on their separate ways.

We bought souvenirs and when we finally drove home, everything feels heavy. Nanna immediately went to her room the moment we stepped inside the mansion.

And I feel sad too. It's sad even if I wasn't really one of their family, and I've only been with them for three short days—because suddenly, the house is so quiet with no kids running around. It's deafening.

I lay down on the bed and sigh. Cole's currently doing something on his laptop, saying he'll finish it right now so we can go to bed together later. "Babe?" I called out.

He's not responding and it's really unusual for him.

Is he so focused he can't hear me? Wow. My shoulders sag and I turn to the other side and starts murmuring. "Just tell me if you're done—"

"I'm sorry, is someone calling me babe?" My eyebrow arched and I turn to look at him. He has a smug look on his face. "I couldn't hear well."

Ah, he's at it again. "I didn't say babe." I lied. "You heard it wrong. I said Abe."

He springs from his seat and sat next to my lying body. "Uh-huh, what's with Abe?" He pin his arm next to my head.

My cheeks blushed. He's hovering me and kept staring at my lips. "Nothing." I look away. "Stop flirting and finish your work." It's already past 6 and we have no intention of eating dinner because of the foods we bought earlier.

His smug look was easily replaced by his signature sexy smile. Sultry smile if there's a word. "Babe."

Something shoots me down there everytime that word rings my ear. I didn't budge to look at him. "You're not gonna finish it if you're talking to me like that."

He ignored it. His fingers traveled to my hair. "Babe," His voice came out low. "Can I take you out in a date?"

My head automatically turned, surprised of what I just heard. "Right now? But you have—"

He shake his head. "Every end of the month." His eyes full of adoration. "Let's meet up, visit, have fun, make out, travel. Anything."

"Every...month?" We're gonna meet up every end of the month?

"I don't even think I'd last a week without you." Loneliness crept in his words. "We can, right?"

Long distance relationship is hard, and that's an understatement. When the other person is just there for you virtually, his response, his presence, his actions, his everything just felt like...an echo. You can't see them right away and hug them tight, tell them how you missed them after a tiring day at school, or hang out with them after you finished homeworks together—or just simply cuddle without any reasons at all.

But the difference of it all is Cole.

Cole is...

Matured and responsible. Romantic... He knows what to do when I don't. When I can't. He knows what to say everything what I wanted. Everything I don't even understand.

To think he'd ask me of this just to see me every month no matter how far we are and how complicated his schedules are, I don't think I can ever surpass his plans with us. His love for me...