undeniable feelings | a stephchelle story

Chapter 23 - bucket list

— MICHELLES POV —

Mine and Stephanie's lips break free as she grins at me happily. I smile back, clutching her hands and wrapping my arms around her sympathetically.

"That was the best thing I've ever done." Stephanie whispers emotionally. "Thank you for pushing me to do it, it was so much fun." She grins.

She grabs my hand, pulling me down the street towards a small lit up restaurant hidden in the corner of an alleyway. We walk inside to the fresh smell of Italian food and are greeted by a tall friendly looking man in a tuxedo and a defined moustache
"Would you like to book a table." He projects with a clear French accent. Stephanie nods her head instantly, as the man shows us to the table.

He takes us to a smaller table, nestled in front of sparkling fairy light and a mini television. We sit down opposite each other, gazing at the beauty of our surroundings. There's a pianist playing softly at the other corner of the restaurant and I look up to see more fairy lights hanging from the ceiling as they twinkle like stars at the darkness of night.

I'm so lost in the moment as I see Stephanie staring at me giggling at how mesmerised I look.
"H-how did you find this place?" I ask in astonishment.
"Toby used to take me here all the time." She shamefully replies, filling my face with sadness.
"But this is our place now." She reassuringly justifies, reaching out for my hand, as I enclose them into mine.

"The reason I wanted to bring you here was because over the summer, I want to spend as much time with you, whilst I still can, before Toby comes back and starts stringing me like a puppet again." She sighs. It makes me feel so happy to think that she wants to spend her summer with me, I can't wait.
"We should write down a list of things we want to do." I beam, as she nods in agreement and opens up her phone notes app
"Hm well, we should go to the beach." I begin, as she speedily writes it down with her long black nails rapidly tapping on the screen.

I continue to come up with ideas, pausing in between one to give her chance to write it. Once we're done, I gaze down at the list.

our bucket list for summer

Movie night
Beach
Learn to surf
Go to a concert together
Watch the sunset
Hot air balloon ride
Slow dance

The list is perfect, it's not too long and not too short, and I know that we're going to have the best summer ever as we tick things off it.
"We can do one of them now!" Stephanie smiles, making me confused. She pulls me out of my seat, taking me over to a big open space near the piano. What's she doing?

There's nobody else in the restaurant, she places her head on my shoulders and grabs my waist, she begins slow dancing with me which is one of the things on the list. She dances to the music in my arms as I do the same, wrapping my arms around the back of her shoulders and closing my eyes. We dance in complete sync, like our bodies are connected as one, nothing's ever felt so great.