The girls both woke up at 6:30 the next morning to get ready. They spent an hour and a half getting ready and packing all of their stuff. They then headed to the airport, and made it just before 9:00.
The flight was about three hours and both girls spent the majority of it sleeping.
"Peyton" Lainey said as she lightly shook the girl to wake her up.
"hmm?" she hummed in response, without actually opening her eyes.
"We're about to land."
"Ok, and?"
Lainey laughed. "You need to wake up, fix your seat, and put on your seatbelt."
"Can't you do it for me?"
"I mean if you're cool with me being that close to you. I would have to reach over you to pull the seat lever, and I would have to reach down by your butt to buckle the seatbelt."
"Better get a good look then." Peyton joked falling back asleep.
Lainey was stunned with the girl's response. She hadn't actually thought Peyton would want her to do it.
She started trying to pull the lever without putting her face in Peyton's chest and then she tried buckling her without touching her, but she wasn't very successful. "Lainey if you don't buckle my fucking seatbelt already you're going to have to catch me when I fly out of my seat." Peyton groaned.
"I'm sorry I'm trying not to touch you, or make it weird."
"You're making it weird by not just doing it. You're making it a bigger deal than it is. Have you never touched a girls hips before?"
"Yeah, but I've never..." Lainey trailed off. "You know what never mind. You're right it's not a big deal, but you should do it since you're awake now."
Peyton smiled finally realizing why Lainey was being weird. "Are you nervous to touch me, Lain?"
"I-" Lainey stopped herself. "Boundaries, remember. I didn't want to cross them."
"I never said that was a boundary. In fact I told you to buckle my seatbelt." Peyton said smugly as she buckled herself.
"I already made us reservations for dinner, so what do you want for lunch?" Lainey asked trying to change the subject.
Peyton didn't want to push Lainey too far so she let the subject go for now. "Depends, what are we having for dinner?"
"I can't tell you, it's a surprise."
"Please, I hate surprises." Peyton begged.
"No can do, P. You're just going to have to trust me on this one."
Once they'd landed the driver who was there to pick them up helped them load their stuff.
"Where to, Miss?" He asked looking in the rearview at Lainey.
"Please Raul, like I've told you in the past I'm not my parents you can call me Lainey. Is the café your wife owns open today?"
"Of course, Miss Lainey, my apologies, I thought that because you had company this time I should play it safe."
"Oh, I'm sorry I totally forgot to introduce you guys. Raul this is Peyton. Peyton, this is Raul. He has been a driver for our family for 7 years now and his wife is the owner of the best café in Miami. Now, about that café, it is open, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"I would like to stop please."
"Right away Miss Lainey" Raul nodded his head.
Once they got to the coffee shop, Raul, got the door for the girls and they all went inside.
"Good afternoon, welcome, come on in and have a seat I'll be with you in ju-" Raul's wife cut herself off when she looked up and saw who walked in. She dropped everything she was doing and rushed over "Lainey! It's been so long! Oh my, beautiful as always. What brings you in today? I had no idea you were coming to the state!"
"Thank you Connie. I'm here for the hotel opening. Dad wants me to be here because he thinks I'll relate more with the weekend crowd. I just had to stop and see you though since I'm in the city. I also heard you had another baby so congratulations."
"Ah yes, he is so wonderful, and very healthy. His name is Carlos."
"That's great news, and how is Raul Jr. getting along?"
"RJ's doing better now that he's getting treatments, and the doctors are hopeful that he will make a full recovery, all thanks to you! You really are our family's hero, Lainey"
"Oh please, it's thanks to you and Raul for being so strong. You two are the ones to take him to his appointments and cheer him up on his worst days. You are the real hereos not me."
"That may be true but don't sell yourself short. Without your help in paying for the treatments he wouldn't be getting them at all, so in the end it all comes back to you, and for that I will forever be indebted to you."
"I'm just glad he's getting the treatments he needs and he has two loving parents by his side at all times. Anyway, I didn't just come to chit chat. Peyton," Lainey gestures to the girl standing next to her, "and I came here to get some lunch."
"Of course, dear, what would you guys like?"
"I'll have whatever you're having." Peyton said to Lainey.
"I'll take two large strawberry lemonades and two of your toasted bagel sandwiches." Lainey ordered
"I'll get those started right away." Connie said and headed back towards the kitchen.
Raul followed his wife back to the kitchen, and the two girls found a booth in the corner
"Why are you staring at me?" Lainey laughed.
"You paid for their son's hospital bills?"
"Not all of them. They give what they can when they can, and they paid all of them for years before. Also, Connie never lets me pay for my stuff when I come here so I feel like it averages out in the end. Plus it isn't their fault their kid has cancer."
"Who would have thought that the big bad Lainey Howard is actually a big softie." Peyton teased.
"Oh, shut up. It's not like I saved the kid's life myself, I just gave his family a little money to help them save him. I've never even met his doctors or been to an appointment."
"Lainey," Peyton sighed. "You really don't give yourself enough credit for all you do. Without you that family wouldn't be able to even afford the treatments, plus you literally spend every Sunday working with a charity and you won't tell anyone. Who does that? You literally have this reputation as a bad girl who jumps from girl to girl, but in reality you don't even have it in you to hurt a fly and you've done everything you can to make me feel comfortable since we moved in together."
"Here's your lemonades, and Raul will bring your sandwiches out soon. I hope you don't mind I put him to work in the kitchen." Connie chuckled.
"I don't mind at all, and there's no rush on the sandwiches we don't have any plans for the day." Lainey responded.
After Connie went back to waiting other tables Peyton and Lainey continued their conversations until their sandwiches arrived. After finishing their drinks and sandwiches they sat in the booth watching the other customers and making small talk.
At 2:00 the girls decided they were ready to leave. They said goodbye to Connie and promised to visit again before they went back home.
The more Peyton learned about Lainey the more surprised she was about how far off the reputation that proceeded Lainey actually was.
Lainey too was surprised as she learned more about Peyton. She no longer thought of her as stuck-up. Peyton was actually really down to earth and more willing to branch out than Lainey had originally thought she'd be.
When it came time for dinner the girls got all dressed up because Lainey told Peyton that this would be a special night.
"Will you please just give me one hint." Peyton begged for the hundredth time as they were in the limo headed towards their destination.
As they pulled up to the restaurant Lainey groaned in annoyance. "Why can't they just leave people alone and get normal jobs, that don't involve getting into people faces and invading their privacy?" she whined, referring to the flashing lights from poparazzi outside the front door of the restaurant.
Peyton chuckled. "What did you expect when you made reservations at the nicest restaurant in Miami. Speaking of which, how did you even get reservations here? Don't you have to make them like months in advance?"
"For most people, yeah, but the head chef used to work for my grandparents so I called in a favor."
"You are so spoiled. We literally could have just gone to McDonalds and I wouldn't have complained."
"McDonalds for our first real date?" Lainey gasped. "Never. Now maybe on like the third or fourth date after I really have you hooked and know you won't be leaving anytime soon, then I'll consider fast food, but for now I'm pulling out all the stops." she said as Raul opened the door for the girls to get out.
Immediately there were a bunch of flashing cameras, and voices all yelling out trying to get the girls' attention. Lainey got out first and held out her hand to help Peyton out. Once out they locked hands and made their way through the mob and into the restaurant.
"Whew, I hate poparazzi." Peyton said.
"Yeah, remind me before we leave and I'll call Raul and have him see if the back entrance is any less hectic." Lainey said as they walked up to the hostess. "Hi, Lainey, party for two."
"Of course, right this way please." The hostess said motioning for them to follow.
Once seated the waiter took their drink orders and promised to come back right away to take their order.
"What are you getting?" Peyton asked.
"I don't know. Usually I get the shrimp, but I've heard their sushi is to die for."
"Oh my gosh, I love sushi! That's definitely what I'm getting." Peyton exclaimed.
"Great, then you can order for the both of us." Lainey said closing her menu.
"Huh? Don't you want to order for yourself? What if I get something you don't like?"
"Honestly I've never had sushi, but I'm sure you'll be fine."
"You've never had it and you want me to order it for your first time? That's a lot of pressure."
"You love it, so you must know what's good and what's not. Plus I trust you, so it's fine. Just order whatever you think I'll like."
"Good evening ladies, here are your waters. Are you ready to order?" The waiter cut in setting down the drinks.
"Yes, we are, she will be ordering for the both of us." Lainey said.
The waiter looked to Peyton waiting for her to order. "Ok," Peyton said, still slightly panicking as she looked at the menu. "I will have the Ebi Ten roll, and she will have the California roll."
"Thank you, I'll get those right in for you guys."
The girls both ended up loving their sushi, and when they were done eating Lainey made sure to pay before Peyton had the chance. After dinner they headed to a park downtown, not too far from the hotel, to walk around for a bit.
As they were walking they were holding hands and talking. Peyton yawned and laid her head down on Lainey's shoulder.
"Are you tired? I can call a car to come get us, or we can walk. It's only 5 minutes to the hotel from here."
"I'm good thanks. If we went back now I wouldn't fall asleep anyway. This park is beautiful."
"This is one of my favorite places to come in Miami. It isn't an overcrowded tourist spot, and it's natural beauty makes it a perfect place to come think and just exist sometimes." Lainey said as they walked up to the fountain in the middle of the park.
Peyton was speechless, she had just assumed that Lainey had brought her to a random park. She had completely underestimated Lainey's ability to do something genuine. "Lainey, can I ask you something serious." Peyton sighed.
"Anything, P." Lainey said keeping her eyes on the fountain in front of them.
"How many girlfriends have you had?"
"Real girlfriends? Two."
"Hook-ups?"
"None, the only girls I hooked up with I ended up dating. Why?"
"I don't know. I guess I was just curious because I know now that the rumors about you hooking up with everyone all the time wasn't true, so I guess I was just curious how many were."
"None. Word never got out that I did anything with your friend Josie, and the only other girl I've been with doesn't even live in this country anymore."
"Oh."
"I'm assuming Scott is your only one?"
"Yeah, I almost dated a girl one of the times Scott and I broke up, but I ended up getting back with Scott before giving that girl a real chance so he's the only one."