Love At First Text ✔️

Her

Hello lovelies - just a PSA to say there will potentially be no upload this Saturday. Next Wednesday will be without an upload.
And please bare with me until the end of Jan. I also have exams coming up so unfortunately my time will be dominated largely but getting a degree🙄.
Trying to, anyway.
But, enjoy this chapter!

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Eden and Sebastian had chatted continuously through the drive to their date. She hadn't even noticed that they had been driving for an hour, or paying much attention to the signposting of their direction. Though she couldn't be sure, she imagined Sebastian had made sure she couldn't by holding all of her attention hostage, as to keep the element of surprise.

And, she was surprised.

"You brought me to a zoo?" She had gasped, after nearly falling from the car. She had scrambled out in a rush, tripping over her own feet. Sebastian had noticed, and grinned.

"It's our first date Eden – I had to make it one you would remember." He had replied, pocketing his hands, waiting for her to reach him after she had stopped gawping.

Her excitement was uncontainable, despite her desperate attempt to keep calm. Her smile was unwavering, and she was all but bouncing on the balls of her feet as they queued at the entrance desk. Sebastian showed the ticket woman two pictures on his phone, to which she scanned, and then extended two lanyards for him to take.

At that, Eden frowned. She had been to plenty of zoos over the years, and never once had she received a lanyard.

"Enjoy your time," she had told the pair of them with a hospitable smile. "You have a little while before your booking. Just head to the enclosure fifteen minutes prior and a keeper will be wating at the signpost for you."

Eden had, unrelentingly, pestered Sebastian for an explanation, but the man didn't give one up. Instead, he told her not to worry, and to just trust him. She did, of course, and so, though reluctant, she stopped her badgering.

"I know you want to see the elephants first, but this place is huge. How about we just stroll, and when we find them, we'll watch them for as long as you want?" He said to her. She had nodded enthusiastically, and both of them walked together around the winding paths, loitering at the fence of the enclosures, or peering into the glass panes. Between it all, they hardly stopped talking, Eden reminiscing on her childhood memories of the zoo, and Sebastian asking Eden if all the facts on the information boards were actually true.

It was the first time, in all her trips, that something else had gartered her attention. Actually, more of a someone. Each time they watched the animals, she found herself glancing at Sebastian, smiling at his unbridled amusement, or chewing at her lip when he chuckled, or fawning just a little bit when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pointing in the direction that she should look.

It was odd to her, how comfortable they felt with one another. She tried to weigh in their circumstances. They had spoken daily for a while now, and the tension of their first meet had since dissipated, but it still felt unusual just how... familiar it already felt. Eden liked that their quiet wasn't awkward, and that their laughter was genuine, and that their conversation flowed smooth. She liked how he engaged with her, reading out the information that boggled him, as if to see if it gained a similar response from her. She watched with tenderness every time he crouched to get closer, or took his phone out to photograph the monkeys.

At one point, a baboon pushed a baby so that it stumbled from the climbing frame, a moment he had managed to catch on video. He showed Eden the replay, stood from behind her with their bodies pressed together. He even asked if it were too cruel for him to send it to Charlotte, and caption it 'you and Aria'. Eden laughed so hard at Char's response that she had the clutch the side of her belly.