Smile {A Phanfiction}

Smile (chapter thirty one)

Phil

I wish I could have taken him to the beach, maybe even confess my feelings in front of him there like how he had envisioned it being like. But seeing as it was below zero and all the beaches or lakes near London would either have frozen over or be covered in at least a foot of snow, I thought that taking Dan to our old staple coffee shop in Manchester would be the next best thing.

I just wanted to give him a taste of what he wanted, a perfect date. Although he probably wouldn't think of it like that until later on.

It was a bit of a walk from the underground to the coffee shop, but I knew it was all going to be worth it when Dan finally realized what it all meant. While the two of us were walking in silence, I really took some time to contemplate what all of this would mean, did I even know what my plans for the day would entail? I may have not been sure, but I did know that there was no turning back now, I had to go through with my plans. In the future, I would thank myself for it.

"Phil, we've been walking for ages," Dan whined. "And I don't even know where we're headed." He probably could have guessed by now, but the snowfall was making it really difficult for anything to be seen clearly.

Coincidently, the next turn we'd take would take us right to our destination, but I wouldn't let that on. "I think it'll be coming up soon."

"What'll be coming up soon?"

"I can't tell you that, it's a surprise."

Dan grudgingly gave up on his complaints and looked around at the almost empty street. The snow drifted to the ground but loomed over it slightly like a shadow. It was beautiful, even more when you looked up into the sky and saw every individual snowflake falling almost in slow-motion and going in every direction all around you. I really wished I could have held Dan's hand, it would have made that entire walk that much more magical.

The shop was coming up soon and I forced my hands over Dan's eyes.

"What the hell are you doing, Phil?" He uttered while trying to pry my hands off his face.

"I don't want you to peek!" I laughed from behind Dan.

"Yeah but I could just close my eyes or something!"

"How am I supposed to know you can't see anything? You could be squinting you eyes tight enough without me noticing."

I could feel Dan's eyes roll from under the wool of my winter gloves. I wondered if he was enjoying this domestic time together or even if he had any guesses as to where we were going.

I stopped Dan in his tracks right in front of the coffee shop's door, he staggered a little bit when we came to a halt. Before I let my hands away from Dan's eyes, I thought about how this was also the same place where Victoria and I had come for our first date and how Dan had caught me in the act. I remembered the angry tone of his voice and the look in his eyes, the fiery colouring and thousands of thoughts. I hoped that that terrible incident wouldn't take away from our old memories, or the new ones Dan and I were about to make.

"What's going on? Why have we stopped?" I must have been lost in thought, I forgot for a moment that Dan was basically blind with my hands blocking his view.

I lifted my gloved hands away from his face slowly, almost like I was trying to give the whole unveiling of the mundane little coffee shop some suspense. "Ta-da!"

Dan

It took me a moment to adjust to the harsh white light that hit my eyes immediately after Phil removed his hands from my eyes. I blinked a couple of times and tried to focus on the building that was before me. When I finally realized where I was, I spun around to face Phil.

"What are we doing here?" I was so tempted to add a bit of anger to my voice, but I instead tried to make the question seem more lighthearted.

"Well... I thought we could spend time in the coffee shop we bonded in all those years ago, here in Manchester. Back when were deciding on our first flat."

I guess he didn't bring me here so I could remember the outburst I had when I saw him on a date Victoria. I still hadn't gotten over how she had betrayed Phil, why would anyone want to hurt such a happy and carefree person? A monster, that's who.

"Come on, Dan." Phil pleaded. "Let's go in."

We walked through the doors to the small shop and I tried to forget all the bad memories I had here, and tried to go back in time to when everything was fine. When Phil and I were fine.

"Go find a place to sit," Phil turned to me a little after we entered (there was no one in the coffee shop, I didn't need to find a place to sit). "I'll go grab some drinks."

I sat down at a table with a nice window seat and looked out into the snow. It was like every drifting spec of snow was a ballerina, dancing on the wind. Oddly, it warmed me inside and pushed me towards all the good feelings pent up inside me.

I felt like I needed this, quality time with Phil on a beautiful snowy Christmas day, drinking scolding drinks and just talking.

But I thought back for a second, the way Phil talked about the old memories we had here felt familiar in some way...I didn't know how, but I did know that the way he talked about them resonated in me in some way.

I just didn't know why.

*************

The next hour was spent joking and talking with warm drinks in our hands and a magical snowy scene out the window, just like I wanted it to be. Just like I needed it to be.

"Well, this was fun," Phil sighed. "Are you ready to go home and get ready?" Phil asked.

I was confused. "Get ready? Get ready for what?"

"We're meeting up with Pj and Chris in about two hours."

"What?"

"Yeah, we'd better catch the next train back to London so we can get ready and meet them at five." Phil said, looking down at the time on his phone.

I honestly had no idea when he had planned this or why he hadn't informed me earlier, but I also couldn't help but be a tiny bit excited about meeting up with Chris and Pj...not to mention spending more time with Phil...

"I had to make some early phone calls for this, so you'd better be ready on time." Phil smiled while standing from his seat and already starting to put his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

I beamed back at him. "Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting."

Author's note
Thank you for 400 reads!
It really means a lot to me.