Shadows and Stars ✔

Chapter Sixty Three

The weeks seem to be disappearing at an unhealthy rate recently, but, with the excitement of my belated birthday outing with Grayson tonight, I can barely even care.

I'm far too excited.

Grayson told me not to dress up. He didn't tell me much else but he told me to wear something half-casual. Half-casual? What even is that? Brushing it off, I throw on a pair of black jeans, a chiffon blouse and blanket the look with my longline denim jacket. In the mirror, I decide that my outfit falls between smart and casual, so I shrug and head downstairs.

The unmistakeable sound of knuckles against the front door zaps my body into a whirl of jittery nerves. I've been looking forward to this night since Grayson told me about it, but now that it's here—he's here—I'm falling victim to my unnecessary nerves again.

Pulling the door open, I can't help but smile at my delicious boyfriend at the threshold—a white t-shirt, black jeans and a leather jacket enhancing his already incredible exterior. Above the neckline of his t-shirt, his silver chain hangs proudly, and I gulp because that thing seems to only magnify his poster-boy look by a thousand.

With a sure smile, Grayson outreaches his hand to mine, biting on his lip when he says, "Hey baby. You look gorgeous."

Heat spills into my stomach. Into my arms and legs and head. Why can't I get used to being in the presence of my own boyfriend? Why does he do this to me with such ease?

Grinning, I say, "Hey Grayson." I shut the door behind me and gladly follow his lead to the car.

But then I stop. Because his car is nowhere to be seen.

Looking to me, Grayson asks, "What's wrong?" But he knows what's wrong—he knows that I can't spy his car because the cheeky smile plastered on his face tells me just that.

"Your car," I say, my eyes searching the street. "Where's your car?"

His shoulders roll playfully. He pulls me close to his side, dips his head and says, "It's not here."

I thought as much, but...why?

"What's going on?" I ask with confusion pulling my forehead downward.

Grayson chuckles. He pulls me even closer and I get a waft of his aftershave which is enough to kill me off. Honestly, this man. "I got the tube," he says, his words sure and laced with amusement.

At the bottom of the pathway, I stop myself, laughter mixed with shock reverberating from inside of me. Looking to Grayson with wide eyes, I say, "You got the tube? Grayson Cooper took the tube?" I don't even realise it, but I'm laughing hard now.

With a subtle eye roll, Grayson says, "Look, I thought we could do it normal tonight." His fingers lace with mine possessively. "Well...without the car. I know how much you hate relying on it." A wink flies from his eye.

A weird but heavenly sensations spills through me. My laughter erupts harder. Grayson loves nothing more than to whizz through this city in his flash car, but, tonight, we're going to do things differently. Tonight we're going to act like tourists and allow our relationship to breath something fresh.

And we do just that.

We run through tube stations, cuddle up on train seats. Grayson messed about on the handles of the train carriages and started doing pull-ups, much to the disapproval of every other passenger. We rode open-top buses, roared with laughter when we got the wrong train and ran like it was the last night of our lives across the edge of the Thames because everything felt so right and so perfect.