Bitter (wlw) (txs)

eighty-eight

Part of myself couldn't believe I'd spent a month visiting the most beautiful cities around Europe with the love of my life, making that summer definitely the best one of my life.

I felt like I'd been living the kind of life you only see in books and movies and leave you wondering if anyone actually gets to experience any of that. Turns out it was more than possible. I'd really been feeling emotions I never thought I could even feel up until then.

As much as our relationship had been going well for a very long time by then, the past few months felt like we'd reached a level of peacefulness and happiness together that nothing or no one could bring us down from. I knew my friends liked to joke about it, but I truly couldn't imagine myself being anywhere without Sam at that point.

We'd been planning the whole trip for a while, so once we got to London as our final stop I couldn't help but be slightly sad about it coming to an end. But I was also glad to be in the city I'd got well acquainted with by then, almost a second home to me. We were just going to be staying two nights, but I was sure we could make the most of it. And I was also quite sure that if we already associated the city with positive memories, we were going to associate it to something even better by the time we left. I was hoping, at least.

"Wait, why did they give us the key to a suite? We just booked a standard room. There must have been a mistake" Sam said as we arrived in front of our hotel room's door.

"No mistakes" I just said, opening the door.

"What? No, we've been coming here every time we stop in London, you know this isn't what we usually get. And we booked it together"

"I...I paid extra so we could get a room upgrade a few days ago" I shrugged, turning around to see her reaction.

"Why??? Are you insane?"

"For wanting us to treat ourselves before going back home?"

"I...You really didn't have to"

"Well, I wanted to" I smiled, walking to her and giving her a kiss.

"Thanks, then" she smiled back, kissing my forehead. "I appreciate it"

"I'm glad" I said, happy at her positive reaction. "Do you want to go out or rest a bit before we meet your sister?"

"We could take a short walk. We're having dinner with her at this hotel's restaurant anyway, right? It won't take us long to get ready. Plus, it'll clear our head before having to hear Lauren talk about her new boyfriend for hours"

"You should be happy for her!"

"Of course I am! But can you believe her business degree got her to work in an important firm just for her to meet someone there and completely fall in love with him?"

"Seems a nice love story, honestly"

"I guess so. He seems like a nice guy, so that's that. Maybe I just can't stand hearing someone talk about men anymore" she shrugged.

"That I understand" I laughed. "But you're right. A walk would be nice"

Maybe being out for a few hours was better than staying in because it'd allow me to think of something that wasn't what I had secretly planned for that evening, which was starting to make me slightly nervous.

And I was also happy to see Lauren as we hadn't met in almost a year by then, since we'd decided to stay in New York during the previous winter holidays, because I was just getting started with my new degree and wasn't in the best mindset to be traveling, and it'd also been a particularly stressful work year for Sam.

Dinner was very pleasant, it felt good to just be chatting and updating each other on our lives since we'd last seen Lauren, and it once again allowed me to relax from whatever I'd been thinking about, especially for the past few days.