My captain

The date

We arrive back in England and it's about noon. Leah and I were both sleeping on the flight so we got back a bit of energy. We leave the airport together but of course not without any questions.

"Where are you going?" Beth asks Leah as she walks with me.

"Manchester." She just shortly answers.

"Why?"

"Because we have a date." I answer that question. I still think that Leah fears to not deserve that date.

"Ohh for how long?" Beth says with an exited voice.

"Today and tomorrow." I say.

"I really hope that you will have a good time." Beth says at Leah. She means it. She told me how bad Leah felt in the last weeks so it's only fair that I will make her feel better now.

"We will." I say and we make our way to Manchester. After a car ride with a taxi we walk the last part to my house. I look over at Leah. She looks concerned and like she is thinking about a lot.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah." She gives me a smile.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you." I say.

"No, I want it. Spending time with you is all I want. I'm just afraid that I don't deserve this." She mumbles.

"Stop saying that. You deserve it, you always deserved it." I tell her. "I got a pretty romantic idea for tonight so be prepared for that." I also say with a smile. I actually came up with this idea in the plane while Leah was sleeping. I also planned a nice spot to eat. I want this to be like a real date. Like it's our first date. We never really had that the first time so it's nice to have it now.

We go to one of my favourite restaurants in the evening for dinner. I feel like Leah is still holding back a bit and is acting shy. I hope I can take that away from her tonight. I want her to just enjoy these two days.

"I got an idea when we were in the US." I say as we sit on the opposite of each other at the table.

"What?" She asks while looking up from her glass.

"I bought a little polaroid camera and I want to take a picture at every date that we are on. I'll put them all together and some day we can look back on it." I explain my idea to her. While I say it I can already see that she liked the idea.

"That is a very sweet idea. I love that." She says with a huge smile. I take the little camera out of my pocket to take the first picture. I can't wait to look at all of them one day. I take Leah's hand on the table and take the picture from my point of view with Leah smiling at the camera and our hands on the table. When the picture got printed out I look at it in my hands. It's actually very cute.

"Look at you." I hold the picture out for Leah to look at it.

"It's sweet." She says.

"Can I ask you a question?" I look in her eyes.

"Yeah." She nods.

"When you said that you loved me, you said it for the first time. Why? What was so different?" I ask. I don't know why but when she told me that it was the first time she ever said 'I love you' to someone, it really stuck with me.

"I guess I just wasn't really in love before." She says.

"In all you past relationships?"

"Well, there were only two before you and one was in school and doesn't really count. You were just different from the beginning. Right when I saw you, I knew that this wasn't just a crush or a falling for someone moment. I knew that I would say it to you. I knew it the day I saw you." She says and almost brings tears to my eyes with these words. It sounds so sweet. I have to smile and my feel my cheeks blushing.