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"You look like your mind is up to no good." Ben chuckles.
I just wiggle my eyebrows at him.
After a while, we just let the boat drift so Elijah can come and sit behind me on the boat. I close my eyes at the feeling of his arms around me, his heart beating against my back, chin resting on the top of my hair. I wish it could just always be this way. No pain, no confusion, no anger. Just happiness. Just...us.
Once we've returned the boat, Elijah and I walk back to the car and he puts in the address for the restaurant in his phone. We're there in a few minutes, parking across the street.
"My lady," Elijah says, offering his arm to me.
"My good sir." I smile.
He leads me to the door and opens it. The restaurant is nice, dimmed lighting over the dining room, candles flickering on tabletops as we're shown to our table.
"How did you plan all this?" I ask once we're seated.
"The wonders of the internet. I was just hoping things actually looked the way they did online. You never know when someone has a picture up from like twenty years ago."
I laugh. "True. Then you get there and it's not quite the same. Like a restaurant catfished you. How did you find this town anyway?"
"Once I remembered how much you liked the beach, I was trying to recall if you'd told me where you used to go. But instead, I looked up beachfront towns not too far from home and this one stood out because it seemed like the whole town was just kind of on the beach itself. All the stores and restaurants right there across from it. I wanted you to be able to see water wherever we went."
"How did you become so thoughtful?" I ask softly, his words making me more sure than ever just how safe I am in falling for him.
"My grandma would attribute herself." He chuckles.
"Remind me to thank her then. Because she raised one hell of a man."
His small smile as the food arrives is everything.
"We have to make sure we come here again," I say as we eat. "It'll be our little hidden piece of the world."
"I like that. We should call the town something of our own, so no one else can figure it out."
"Hmm, smart." I put my finger to my chin. "How about mermaid town?"
He laughs. "Mermaid town it is."
Once we finish, we go back to the room, but we're not in it for long. Elijah grabs two spare blankets, and we leave out the sliding door to go to the beach. Although a sign clearly says no one is supposed to be out here after dark, coming to the water one more time is just too good a chance to miss. We walk in silence, me closer to the water, once again wishing this moment would never end.
When we reach a small alcove in the sand, Elijah lays down one blanket and pulls me down to it with him. We sink into the sand as he wraps his arms around me from behind.
"Say in the future, you know like 2050," I begin. "And we were to have a house together. I would want it to be just this close to the beach."
Nervousness fills me at talking about a future with him. The future lately has felt so...unsure. Words from peoples' lips, promises to stay around, have felt like lies. But with Elijah, I know he means what he says. But does he see the same future that I do?
"2050, huh? So you don't plan to marry me until we're old and gray?"
I smile and tuck back further into him. "I may be open to a sooner wedding. Depends on a few factors."
"Such as?"
"Well, I'd want a beach wedding, of course. Something small. Then we honeymoon somewhere where the water is so clear that I can see fish swimming in it. When we come back, we move into our house, right near the water, like beach in my backyard close."
"Anything else?"
"Maybe two or three kids to run around, and we can teach to swim in that nearby beach. They would have to both be tall like you because not being able to reach the top shelf on the upper cabinets isn't fun." He chuckles and it rumbles against my back.
"Okay, I'll give them my height, if you give them your eyes."
