"Now can I know where we are?"

TJ pouted her bottom lip and batted her long lashes at me. The car rolled to a stop outside our destination. I got out of the vehicle and extended my hand for her to take.

"Welcome to Coney Island. Normally there are a lot more people," I said, explaining the vacancy that surrounded us, "But, we're actually going here."

TJ looked up at the large structure. "The New York City Aquarium?"

"Yeah, I just thought since the last time we were here together, we explored some of the sights of the city at three in the morning, it might be nice to see an actual attraction."

I feared she would think it was lame or boring that I had brought her here. The worrying feeling was quickly diminished when she looked at me with a wide smile and excitedly asked, "Do you think they'll have sharks here? I've never seen one before!"

"They have an entire exhibit that we are seeing."

She quietly squealed beside me as we walked towards the entrance. "How did you know I loved sharks?"

"Lucky guess."

In fact, it was an incredibly lucky guess considering only a few moments ago I was fearing that the beginning of my surprise for our date night had been a grave miscalculation. After a quick introduction to the tour guide, an older gentleman named Benard who insisted on being called Benny, TJ and I entered through the main doors of the exhibition. Although he seemed like a nice man, I was glad Benny allowed us to roam the space on our own, and only was near for question purposes. Because that meant I was able to hear more of TJ's fun facts.

"Did you know there are approximately five-hundred species of sharks?"

"I did not," I said, putting my arm around her waist as we walked. "When did your love of sharks start?"

"When I was younger, one of the few channels we got at Silas's house played all these documentaries about nature and I was just fascinated by them," she explained. "Plus, Pat once said he was scared of them because they were evil, and so I learned all the facts I could to prove him wrong."

We passed through another set of doors and TJ stopped in her tracks and sucked in a breath at the view in front. The tunnel we were in had fish swimming on either side and above where we stood. I think I was almost as amazed as she was to see a fish swim up and over our heads to the other side. The light reflecting off the water created a rainbow effect along our path.

I pointed to a blue fish with a yellow tail. "That one looks like Dory."

"That's a blue tang fish."

"Wow, you really know your fish facts."

TJ giggled and shook her head. "No, they just have the information of all the fish in front of us," she said, pointing down at the information panel near the bottom of the glass.

"What's the orange one with the white stripes?"

TJ looked down at the panel. "A butterflyfish," she read.

"They have funny little bodies don't they," I commented, stepping closer to get a better look at the square-shaped fish with a small fan-like tail.

She gasped, pointing to one that swam out from behind the coral reef structure. "Look! That's a blacktip reef shark!"

"Shit, that guy is big!"

"That's what she said," she murmured under her breath, looking up at me with an innocent smile as if she never said it. "I think they average about five or six feet long."

"Look at him go!"

We both turned our heads, watching as the shark wiggled its long body through the water. It swam up to the glass we stood in front, before travelling up and over top, and onto the other side where it disappeared behind a different reef.

"Oh, and that's a zebra shark!" She pointed to an even bigger shark with spots all over its body that swam across the bottom of the reef. "Did you know that females don't need men to reproduce?"

"No way."

"I'm serious!"

I turned my head. "Benny, is it true that the..."

"Zebra shark," TJ helped in a whisper.

"... that the female zebra sharks don't need males to reproduce?"

Benny nodded his head. "Yes, that is correct."

"Told you," TJ teased.

I looked back at the shark with wide-spread eyes and a short-snouted mouth that made it appear as if it were smiling at us. "That's wild."

"They also sleep all day and roam the bottom of the reef at night for food," Benny added, adjusting the circular glasses which sat on the bridge of his nose, "They are also amazingly flexible creatures."

"I know someone like that," I mumbled.

TJ playfully hit my shoulder with the back of my hand. She tried to remain serious with her look, but the laughter she was biting back folded her bluff.

"Come on, there's more to see," I said, taking her hand and leading her out of the tunnel.

There was a panel on the far wall with more information regarding the food chain, which TJ read over and confirmed as if she were fact-checking their work.

The ceiling was covered with model sharks as we continued throughout the exhibition. TJ stopped at every panel, continuing her fact-checking. Her brows knitted together as nodded her head to all the facts and informative blurbs. It was equally adorable and amusing seeing this side of her. When she loved something, she was clearly dedicated to it.

I held her hand tightly, my nerves setting in as I knew the grand surprise of the night was nearing close. Thankfully, TJ was far too immersed in the experience to notice. As we turned another corner, leading to a tunnel that was similar to the one we started our night in, I was finally able to let out a breath.

"Oh my god," TJ gasped.

Rose petals were scattered across the ground and candles were placed along each side, illuminating the pathway. The light from the candles reflected off the water from the ceiling. This tunnel differed from the one before because at the end there was no informative panel on the wall. Instead, there was a table covered with more petals and candles, set for two to dine.

She turned her head towards me and I noticed the way her eyes glossed over as she squeezed my hand.

"Carter, this is..."

"If you let one tear slip I bet you Elijah will speed down here from the hotel to yell at us about you ruining your makeup," I teased.

She let out a stifled laugh, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. "Okay," she said quietly as we walked towards the table. "I just... can't believe you did this."

"Well, I'm sure Benny was the one who scattered the flowers around. I only asked him to do it." I pushed in her chair and made my way to the other spot and sat down. Benny walked over with two covered plates and set them on the table in front of each of us, removing the lids.

"Enjoy," he said before disappearing.

TJ looked down at her meal. "Chicken alfredo?"

"Well, I know it's your favourite," I said with a smile. "Besides, can you believe they asked if we wanted to have fish?"

She raised a brow. "That feels..." she quickly looked at the fish behind the glass. "...wrong."

We quickly dove into our food as TJ commented on her hunger. The conversation was light, never dropping to an uncomfortable silence. That was something I enjoyed about spending time with her. No matter how much I thought I knew about her likes and dislikes, there was also a small story she would tell or hint about something she did that taught me something new.

"Want to know a secret?"

I took a sip of water from my glass. "Always."

"Sometimes I wish people would call me Tyler instead of TJ."

"Did they used to?"

TJ moved a piece of pasta around on her plate. "Not exactly. Jane is technically my middle name and my first name, Tyler, was the name my dad chose. And, well, we all know what happened to him. So my mom hated calling me that and she would call me Jane - which I hated."

"She hated calling you by your name?"

"Oh, yeah, she would tell me all the time," TJ continued to push the food around on her plate. "It's just another reminder he left me," she mocked in a slightly higher-pitched tone. "That was one of her favourite lines. Anyway, when I got to school, I didn't want to be called Jane. I liked my name. But, I didn't want to imagine what would happen if someone called me Tyler around her. And... TJ it was."

"Why didn't you go back to Tyler when you moved in with Silas?"

"Everyone knew me as TJ by then. It seemed like too much of a hassle to change it." She gave me a nonchalant shrug. "Besides, he has a cousin named Tyler who was around a lot when we were younger and I didn't want to make it confusing."

I placed my hand on hers. "Do you want me to call you Tyler?"

She gave me a sympathetic smile. "That's sweet," she said but shook her head. "I think being here just reminds me of when I was younger and what I liked, which included being called my name - that's all." TJ intertwined her fingers with mine as our hands rested on the table. "You could call me Ty, though. I mean, that is if you wanted to add another nickname to the list. It could give you another option aside from Baby."

"Yeah, sorry about that one. I don't know where it came from," I said, realizing I had never checked with her to know if she was okay with it or not. Most of the time it slipped out without me even realizing it.

"Don't be sorry. Normally I hate shit like that, but I like it when you say it." She released my hand and picked up her fork, finishing the remainder of what was on her plate. "This night is pretty spectacular. You've really outdone yourself, Young."

"Just trying to match you in the romance department," I teased. "You certainly still win the award for most romantic lines."

TJ leaned forward with a playful look. "Then here's another one for you," her voice dripped with seduction as she said, "When we get back to the hotel room, you can do anything you want to me."

My mouth instantly ran dry at her words. "Anything?" I asked, reaching for my glass of water.

"Well, the last time we were here in New York together, I personally enjoyed it when you fucked me against the window but-"

I choked on my water, earning a giggle from TJ in response to my reaction.

"But, I know we have rules in place, or, whatever." She rolled her eyes, waving her hand dismissively.

I cleared my throat. "You know, for someone who suggested we have the three date rule, you really seem to hate it. Can I ask why we have this rule in place?"

"I'd rather you didn't," she mumbled, turning back to her plate. "It's stupid."

"What is? Why you wanted it in the first place? Or the rule itself?"

"Both, I guess."

"Well, if it's so stupid, then I'm sure you can tell me."

TJ leaned back in her seat, slowly letting her gaze meet mine. "After I left- I mean we..." she began to stumble through her words.

"Took some time apart?"

"Yeah, after we did that," she said, giving me a small smile, "I was upset, or whatever, and Gwen suggested we watch some romantic comedies. I have never seen a bunch of them so we watched... a lot," she widened her eyes dramatically. "Anyway, they just all seemed to have the same thing to them. An innocent-type girl meets a guy... they fall for each other slowly... there's the stupid three-date rule... some minor inconvenience comes into play... and boom, everything's sorted and they live happily ever after."

I nodded trying to understand what she was getting at. When the puzzle pieces didn't fit, I asked, "Are you saying you want a minor inconvenience to make us more like a movie?"

"No, I just..." TJ paused, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. "We're not anything like those types of couples. We didn't have some meet-cute moment where I spilled coffee all over you or my dog got loose and you found him. Our moment is from when I teased you over the fact that... someone," she avoided Brandon's name, "thought we wanted to fuck each other. That's not exactly romantic."

"I thought it was romantic."

"I'm being serious, Carter."

I leaned forward, taking her hands in mine. "Fine, then if we're being serious about things - then that's not when we met. We met when Ryan ordered shots from you and you decided to take them for yourself and keep my twenty dollars. That was our moment." My fingers intertwined with hers. "Characters in those types of movies live in these lavish big city apartments when there's no way their jobs would even cover the rent of their bathroom. So, who fucking cares if we're not like those couples? They don't even have realistic living arrangements."

TJ bit back a smile, looking down at our hands. "I guess I got worried that since we weren't like them, it meant we wouldn't last."

"Just because I met you in a bar instead of a coffee shop doesn't mean we won't last." Noting the worried look in her eyes, I said, "Come here," and gently tugged her arms to pull her out of her seat, drawing her body towards mine. TJ positioned herself in my lap as I secured an arm around her waist from behind. "What else is there? I can see it written all over your face."

She took a deep breath, letting her eyes roam towards the view before slowly looking back at me. "I know I like you. You're passionate... and kind... and you have this big heart that keeps giving me a chance time, and time again. Seeing how you were with your family, how much you care for them and how you are with Rory - I mean, I hate kids and seeing you two together softened me right up." TJ paused, fidgeting with the chain around my neck. "I like who you are as a person - there's no doubt in my mind about my feelings towards you. But I also really, really like having sex with you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Well... isn't it?"

I brushed a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "We're compatible - sexually and romantically. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I don't know how it's supposed to feel," she said quietly, "I've never mixed emotions and sex together like this before."

"I haven't either," I told her honestly.

"You haven't?"

"Not like this. You said this is your first real relationship - well, technically it's mine too. There was no contract involved, no agents setting us up. We just-"

TJ cut me off by capturing my lips in a kiss. The arm around her waist stayed securely in place, while my other hand travelled up to the back of her neck. The short, yet madly passionate kiss, caused me to catch my breath as she pulled back.

"What was that nice surprise for?"

She gave me a small shrug. "How do you always know the right thing to say to make me feel better?"

"I'm not sure," I replied. "I'm just being honest. We enjoy spending time with one another... we're building trust between each other. Hell, you've opened up more in these past few days about what's going on in your brain than the entire time I've known you," I gently teased. "There will be some times where we just fall asleep like last night, or, you know, you'll ask me to fuck you against a window or grab your boob a little," I pecked the tip of her nose, noticing her cheeks flush with colour, "And, maybe in the future our desires will slow down, or maybe they won't. As long as we communicate what's going on here," I pointed to her head, "And here," My finger moved to her chest, "We-"

TJ grabbed hold of my hand, pointing it below her waist. "What about here?"

"There too," I grinned at her smug look, "As I was saying, as long as we communicate, we'll be just fine. Okay?"

She nodded her head. "Okay," she repeated. "Wow, it really makes a difference to talk things out rather than letting it fester in your head."

I cocked my head to the side at her slight sarcasm. "Funny how that works. Now, come on. We've got to get a move on for the rest of our date."

"There's more?"

"Of course. You think I'd only take you for dinner for our first official date as a couple?"

TJ motioned her arm around. "I mean, look where we are, Carter. This is a pretty fancy date."

I ignored her comment and tapped my hand against her thigh. "Come on, let's go."  

first time I've actually just enjoyed writing a fluffy chapter. hence why there's another freakin part of this chapter to go :D 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE HOLIDAY TREAT? mine's the Irish creme cold brew from Starbucks (...i know I'm basic but its SO GOOD) TELL ME YOURS ->

stay safe my angels <3