june 2019 : 1 year and 3 months ago

"You sure you got everything you need?" Liam asked as they approached the airport security checkpoint. The wheels of her suitcase lightly squeaked on the off-white floors as he rolled it behind him.

It was hard not to giggle at him double and triple-checking all morning that she wasn't forgetting anything she might want while she was away. It was simultaneously very sweet and hilarious—he was acting like she was going off into the wilderness where convenience stores didn't exist rather than to an even nicer city than the one they were in.

"You have your driver's license?"

"Yep."

"Meds?"

"Yep."

"Charger and headphones?"

She grinned and turned to face him as they came to a stop near the entrance to the security line. "Yes, but I could buy those here if I needed to, silly."

His fingers carefully tightened the end of her braid. "I know," he mumbled. "But you don't wanna realize it once you're already stuck on the plane."

Fair point. "Fine, you win this one. But I got them."

He silently nodded and came closer to place a delicate kiss on her forehead. She let her eyes shut for just a few seconds while she breathed in the happy, cozy scent of him one last time before she left – cologne and coffee mingling with that hint of laundry detergent freshness that liked to hang around on his clothes. It was her comfort scent, the one she wished she could bottle up and take with her wherever she went. She couldn't, so she had to settle for sneaking one of his tee shirts into her suitcase and hope he didn't notice its absence.

"Be safe," he murmured. "Let me know when you get there."

"I will," she promised. "I love you."

"Love you, too."

Liam reluctantly slid her suitcase over to her and her hand wrapped over his before he could pull it off the handle. She ran her thumb along the back of his palm for a fleeting moment before making herself let him go, only able to force herself to walk away and get in the TSA line once she had given him a proper goodbye kiss on the lips.

Excited butterflies started clambering around her stomach as she made her way through security. Despite the fact that she obviously didn't like leaving her boyfriend, she was practically counting down the seconds until she could hug Henry. Lily had never traveled on her own before and was a little nervous about that aspect of the trip, but it was actually kind of fun to walk around the airport shops and buy an obscenely large coffee with no one there with her to judge her for it.

The flight wasn't bad by any means, just long, but she had a window seat and had downloaded a bunch of podcasts to occupy herself with, so the time passed by as swiftly as it could. She happily munched away on the free Biscoff cookies and Goldfish—five hours was apparently long enough to warrant two rounds of snacks, which she wasn't complaining about.

The jitters returned when the flight attendants announced that they were about twenty minutes away from landing. Seeing new cities always caused a unique kind of excitement to bloom in her heart and this was the furthest she had ever gone from home. Yet in an odd and unexpected way, it somehow also felt like a homecoming of sorts because she knew that Henry was waiting there for her.

She texted him, Liam, and her parents as soon as the plane was on the ground and tapped her foot in restless anticipation while she waited for the rows of passengers in front of her to exit. Finally standing up and moving around provided blissful relief after being confined to such a tiny space for hours.

She rushed out to baggage claim to grab her suitcase as quickly as possible and then go find Henry. Hauling the giant bag around slowed her down slightly, but she felt herself burst into a huge smile when she spotted that familiar curly head of hair waiting for her by the ground transportation sign. The wheels of her suitcase started squeaking a little louder as she sped up and nearly ran towards him.

He broke into a goofy grin and came to meet her halfway when his eyes, scanning around the terminal for her, finally landed on her and saw her pummeling towards him.

Hugging Henry was like finally reaching the long-awaited arrival of Spring—opening the front door, dipping your toes into the grass, and feeling the coolness of the dew against your skin. Closing your eyes and tilting your chin up towards the sunlight to feel those first tentative rays of warmth touch your face for the first time after spending months spent under a cover of clouds. A wave of pure joy and peace washed throughout her whole body once she felt his arms back around her and heard him mumble, "Hey, loser."

"Hi, loser." She made herself let go of him – they were standing in the middle of the airport, after all – and her attention was immediately diverted. "Your arm!" she ogled.

The patterns of black ink now wrapped all the way around his forearm and up past his elbow, almost reaching the edge of his tee shirt sleeve. He had shown her each of his tattoos over Facetime when he got them, of course, but that wasn't the same as seeing them in person and he didn't have nearly this many six months ago when he came home for Christmas. At this rate, he was gonna have the full sleeve in no time.

"That is my arm," he agreed matter-of-factly, earning him an elbow from her as they started off towards the parking garage.

"So what is on our agenda for this lovely Monday?" she inquired.

"Well, I wasn't sure if you would be so awake or not," he explained, evidently amused by how bubbly she was. "But I figured we could drop your stuff off at the apartment and then figure out the rest from there."

Lily nodded. Dumping the suitcase was definitely a priority—pulling this thing along was like dragging a sack of bricks. It was possible that she had gone a bit overboard with the packing.

She didn't realize how much she could miss a car until she climbed back into the passenger seat of Henry's Jeep and was greeted by the same old leather smell that had always been there. It was good to be back.

He noticed her contentment and smiled, reaching over to softly tap on the glove box. "Pick your poison."

She didn't understand what he meant until she carefully pulled on the handle and the glove box popped open, revealing all seven of her precious Taylor Swift CDs that she had left with him.

"My babies," she gaped. "Uncle Henry better have been treating you well."

Although she wasn't looking at him, she could practically feel him rolling his eyes. To be fair, she was talking to inanimate objects, but they were inanimate objects with a lot of sentimental value.

Lily grabbed 1989 and popped it into the CD player while Henry pulled them out of the parking garage, but she turned the volume down so she could focus on catching up with him and watching out her window at the evergreen trees. Her brain had been too preoccupied until this point with all of her elation about seeing him to pause and notice how pleasant the weather was here compared to home. It was only once he rolled down the windows and she felt the cool touch of a breeze caress her cheek that it dawned on her that despite the fact that it was a sunny June day, it couldn't have been warmer than seventy degrees out and the air wasn't sticky with humidity like she was so accustomed to it being. It mingled the crispness of fall with all the bright sunshine of summer.

She glanced over at Henry, who looked happy as could be. His dark curls were ruffled by the wind and the way the sunlight gleamed off his hair made parts of it look lighter than it was. His eyes were concealed by his sunglasses, but he had a content little smile on his lips and his posture was relaxed. Lily couldn't help but grin when she noticed his fingers start to lazily tap on the steering wheel to the beat of "Blank Space."

Her eyes stayed glued to the world outside as they got into the city, the sapphire waters of the Puget Sound rippling on their left. Henry did a pretty good job at playing driver and tour guide simultaneously, pointing out landmarks to her such as the stadium where the Seahawks played (even though they both knew neither of them truly cared about football).

It took less time than she expected for them to get all the way from the airport to his apartment building. The block was nice in a quaint way—it seemed refreshingly quiet for being nestled in the middle of such a busy city and there was a little bookstore and coffee shop right next to the entrance to the parking garage.

She had no clue what to expect his apartment to be like besides small. He had warned her that it was tiny, but that didn't deter her from being excited to see it. Taking into account that Seattle was one of the most expensive places in the country to live, the fact that he had a separate bedroom as opposed to a studio seemed like enough of a win. It wasn't like he really had the need for anything bigger, anyway.

Heaving her suitcase up the stairs to the eighth floor would have been a nightmare, but luckily there was an elevator. He unlocked his door and when she stepped inside and glanced around, Lily couldn't help but smile. It all felt very Henryish. He had a little coffee maker and a bookshelf and a record player so he could listen to the vinyls he'd gotten of some of his favorite albums. She spotted the framed pictures of the two of them that she gave him as his going away present last year carefully placed on the center row of the shelf.

"You can take the bed," he told her as she was taking all of this in. "I don't mind having the couch."

"What?" she frowned. "No, it's your home. I'll take the couch."

He shrugged. "You just sat on a plane for five hours. I think you've been uncomfortable enough for one day."

She supposed he had a little bit of a point. Her body was still sore from being crammed in the plane seat.

"Fine, but you get it tomorrow," she compromised. She wasn't about to let his birthday conclude with him having to sleep on the couch. "We'll take turns."

"Deal."

Lily dumped her suitcase in his room and quickly freshened up in the bathroom, not wanting to waste a minute of their time together but feeling exceptionally gross from the flight. She returned to the living area and found Henry patiently waiting on the couch, reading something off a piece of paper.

"So, back to that game plan we definitely have. What do you wanna do?" she asked. They still had a good portion of the afternoon left to explore the city.

He held up the paper. "Well, I made a list of options-"

She involuntarily snickered. "I feel like I just watched you transform into a middle-aged dad planning family vacation."

Henry grinned, wadded the paper up into a ball, and chucked it at her. It collided with her stomach and fell to the floor. She picked it up just to throw it back at him, lobbing him in the head. It was a beautiful shot, but he refused to pretend like it hurt.

"I'm just trying to make up for the fact that you're the least decisive person I know," he teased as he retrieved the crumpled paper from the floor to unfold it.

"Fine." She came over to try to glance at his (now very wrinkled) list. "What would you propose that we do? Or did you make a powerpoint of pros and cons?"

This boy was about to win a world record for highest number of eye rolls in one day if he kept this up. She plopped down next to him on the sofa.

"Well," he said, declining to verbally acknowledge her joke. He was no fun. "We obviously have five days to get through all the touristy stuff, but I had a sneaking suspicion you would wanna go to the first Starbucks down at the market and their big roastery."

"Oh yeah, I've heard about that," she said in reference to the latter. It was some super bougie version of Starbucks that they only had in a few cities. "Don't they have a bunch of fancy drinks?"

He nodded. "Among other things."

They headed to the Pike Place Market first since wandering around there was definitely near the top of Lily's to-do list. It was unsurprisingly packed with people, but the mild breeze that drifted through the entryways prevented the indoor sections from getting too hot. She got sidetracked for several minutes admiring the rows and rows of flower bouquets, some of the most beautiful she had seen in her life. She was tempted to ask Henry if they could get one to bring back to his apartment, but she knew he would say yes and decided against making him carry them around for the rest of the afternoon.

The line for Starbucks stretched out the door and down the sidewalk, which Lily assumed was pretty much always the case. She debated how badly she wanted to stand in line, but it didn't seem like the greatest use of time when she could order the same drinks at any other Starbucks. She opted to fully embrace that she was basic and just take a picture outside instead.

Once she got him to take her picture, she gave Henry her best sad puppy eyes. "Will you take one with me? Pretty please?"

Getting him to take a selfie with her was just as impossible as virtually anything else you ever wanted men to do. They weren't the most useful species.

She watched a tiny piece of his soul die as he realized he was gonna have to take a selfie in front of Starbucks, but since she had only gotten the opportunity to annoy him in person twice over the past year, he obliged.

"You up for more walking or should we go get the car?" he asked as soon as she was done torturing him with various Snapchat filters and they had stepped aside to get out of other people's way. "It's about ten blocks to the other Starbucks."

"Walking's fine." She wasn't that lazy and it felt good to move around and stretch her legs after all that time sitting down. "Lead the way."

While he was correct that the Starbucks roastery wasn't geographically far from where they were, what he failed to mention was that those ten blocks were straight up a steep heel. He seemed unbothered by the trek, but Lily was panting by the time they got to the top and more than ready to reward herself with some much-needed iced coffee. The store was already impressive from the exterior, so she was eager to see what awaited them inside. Henry pulled open the bulky bronze-accented doors under the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room sign.

"Woah," was Lily's first thought as she stepped into what would probably best be described as the Willy Wonka factory of coffee shops.

Even if she had come bearing a lot of expectations, she wouldn't have been disappointed—this place was grander than anything she would have conjured up in her head. It was enormous, with massive coppery vats of coffee beans dominating the space which was otherwise filled with bars, merchandise, and chatty patrons.

Her eyes landed on the nearest menu and she frowned, naturally anticipating that she would see a list of coffee items and pastries. She only grew more confused as she went down the list—the "other things" that Henry alluded to apparently ranged all the way from wine to pizza to salad.

She probably would have stood there gaping for much longer had she been on her own. The amount of action taking place around was almost overwhelming for her senses to try and take in all at once, but he had clearly been here before, so he was able to lead her over to a drink bar where they could sit down and she could get her bearings.

Lily was able to tune out some of the background commotion as she picked the menu up off of the table in front of her and started reading through it. The majority of the items weren't offered at normal Starbucks stores and almost all of them sounded delicious, so she didn't know how she was supposed to pick just one. Although the idea of trying several drinks was enticing, the price tag wasn't, so she made herself narrow it down to a cinnamon roll for her snack and a nitro mocha as her drink. It had both espresso and cold brew in it, which sounded precisely like the ungodly amount of caffeine she was craving right now.

She wondered if they would be waiting on their drinks for a while, but it only took a couple of minutes for them to be brought out. She took the first small sip of her refreshingly cold coffee and smiled. It was both rich and smooth, strong and sweet. Yum.

"Is yours good?" she asked Henry curiously. She had been so absorbed in her own decision-making process that she didn't even catch what he ordered.

As he nodded, one corner of his mouth turned up into a tiny smirk. In hindsight, that should have been a warning sign. "You wanna try it?"

The glass was cold under her fingertips as he passed his cup to her. She lifted it to her lips without much thought, which resulted in her nearly spluttering on the liquid when it hit her tongue and burned her throat on the way down. Henry bit back a laugh.

"What's in that?" she demanded with a tiny cough as she shoved it back to him, her eyes watering.

He slid the menu to her so she could read the description and see for herself. She skimmed the spot he pointed to, her eyes widening as she did. Cold brew and whiskey, really?

"Jesus Christ, it's 3 p.m," she exhaled. The taste wasn't even half bad if she could manage to get past the searing sensation, but the combination honestly just confused her. "Is this what adulting has done to you?"

He took another swig of the demonic drink and grinned. "You mean spending all my money on day drinking and tattoos isn't something a totally stable person would do?"

"You're right, why did I ever question you?" She shook her head and resumed drinking her own coffee. The espresso and cold brew combo now felt rather tame in comparison to his pick. "So what have you actually been up to these days?"

"Mostly reading and Netflix on the weeknights," he admitted. His glass made a tiny clinking noise under his fingertips as they lightly tapped on it. "But sometimes when the weather's nice I'll go hiking with the guys from work on the weekend."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "You like your coworkers enough to hang out with them on the weekends? And exercise?"

"Yeah, they're pretty cool." When he saw that she wasn't fully on board with this response, he added, "And there are usually lots of dogs out on the trails."

She could get on board with that. If there was ever a good excuse to go outside, 'twas to see a good puppo.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Just the usual for the most part." There wasn't that much to say about her life at the moment. "Liam and I had a nice anniversary celebration."

Henry slowly nodded as he took another gulp of his drink and casually said, "Oh, yeah. He mentioned that."

There was a second of delay before Lily's brain processed what he said. She set her cup down and leaned forward in her seat.

"Hold on, he mentioned it?" she clarified. "As in you were talking to him?"

"That would be required for him to mention it, yes." he pointed out.

She blinked. "But you guys just...talk?"

Henry shrugged nonchalantly. Well that wasn't vague or anything. Lily narrowed her eyes at him as she lifted her cup back to her mouth. She might not be able to force anyone to spill anything, but she was definitely prying Liam about this later.

The remainder of their afternoon and evening was spent back down by the market and the waterfront, meandering around until the tangerine orb of the sun was bobbing near the horizon line and had painted the sky in streaks of amber, pink, and violet.

It was one of those days she wished she could wrap up in a present box to hold onto forever. The smell of saltwater met her nose with each soft breeze that rustled the flowy fabric of her shirt and the deep rumble of a ferry horn occasionally sounded through the air. Each time one did, her thoughts immediately jumped to Grey's Anatomy and how much Derek liked ferry boats, but she miraculously found the self-restraint to stay off that soapbox and spare Henry from having to listen to her ramble about TV drama that aired ten years ago.

It was so wonderful to just be them again. She couldn't have fully encapsulated the sensation in words if she tried. It was the most peaceful contentment, bliss of the calmest kind. Even though she and Henry talked over Facetime almost every week, that was nowhere near the same as actually being with him. She missed his full existence—watching all his little mannerisms as they strolled side-by-side (he talked with his hands a lot), hearing the cadence of his voice unaltered by a bad wifi connection, scowling and lightly punching his arm when he teased her, getting pulled into the hug he'd give her instead of retaliating. She always fell for it and thought he was just being a cuddly teddy bear when it was actually a trap to lure her in so he could irk her by ruffling her hair.

They ate dinner at a restaurant by the waterfront and sat outside where they could watch the sea. Well, not the sea. The almost sea. The sea-by-proximity. It was connected to the ocean and it was salty and that was close enough in her book. Ripples quietly lapped against the boardwalk while Lily happily munched on her chicken tenders.

"So, what are you gifting yourself for your birthday?" she asked curiously after they had finished their meal and were leaving the waterfront, crossing the street back towards the direction they came from. "Another tattoo?"

"You know, I hadn't thought about it," Henry's pace slowed slightly as he deliberated. "But now that you mention it...I have an idea that I don't think you'll be mad about."

"Does it involve more food?" she guessed.

"It could possibly involve more food." They had arrived back at the market, which was still just as crowded as it had been earlier in the afternoon. "Wait here and try not to get kidnapped. I'll be back in a few."

What? Rude. Although she did want to get more basic tourist pics than she had gotten the chance to take earlier. She stuck her tongue out at him before he turned away.

She took the moment of solitude to give Liam a call and sum up her day as well as she could in a few short minutes. Hearing his voice made her miss him already, but she smiled when he told her that he spent most of the day outside helping Jo and then had dinner with his parents – a bit of a rarity in his household, especially on a Monday.

"Love you," she murmured as she saw Henry coming back in her direction, now carrying a white box. "I gotta go."

"Love you, too. 'Night, Lils."

She slid her phone back into her pocket. "What's this?" she questioned as she eyed the box.

"This," he explained, cracking it open for her to peer inside. "Is seventy dollars worth of cheesecake that we're about to go eat."

Her jaw fell as she caught a glimpse of the different flavors in the box – original, double chocolate, raspberry, and lemon – all drizzled with fruit or chocolate syrup and topped with dark or white chocolate shavings. "You're my hero."

So they went back to his place, plopped down on the couch, put Tangled on, and inhaled much more cheesecake than they should have consumed in one sitting. Her feet had grown sore by the end of several hours of exploring the city, so relaxing and watching one of her favorite movies with one of her favorite people felt like the perfect ending to a perfect day. They stayed there quietly talking after the movie was over until an indeterminable amount of time had passed and her eyes were threatening to fall shut with fatigue. Boarding the plane this morning felt like a lifetime ago.

Lily said goodnight and trudged off to the bathroom to get ready for bed before she could allow herself to become any more tired. A long shower helped to soothe her aching muscles even more, so she had hope that she would wake up tomorrow reinvigorated and ready to do it all over again. Once she was finally ready for sleep, she crawled into bed and grabbed her phone to glance at the time. 11:58.

Despite her drowsiness, she still felt her lips turn up into the smallest of smiles as she watched the time switch over to midnight. She slipped out of bed and her feet quietly padded against the floor as she tiptoed back out to the living room, not wanting to accidentally wake him up if he had fallen asleep.

The only source of light left was the softest city glow that trickled in the window through a thin gap in the curtains. She could barely make out the silhouette of his body, rolled onto his side, and tentatively stepped closer to the couch.

"You okay?" his voice softly mumbled.

"Yeah," she whispered back, coming around the front of the couch and sitting down on the floor. "I was just gonna say Happy Birthday, loser. I love you."

"Thanks, loser." Although she couldn't see him well, she could hear in his voice that he had started to smile. "I love you, too."

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I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Just 6 more and the epilogue left