The next few days in London were as pleasant as the first ones, and I'd been starting to appreciate and feel at home in the city more by the second. Sam's way of talking about everything she showed me only made me appreciate it even more.
One of the highlights was going to the British Museum, and not only because I witnessed Sam's professor mode for three consecutive hours, something I'd kind of missed. I was truly amazed by how much art, culture and history could fit in one single place, and by the fact that it was all freely accessible.
Sam overall seemed to be in a particularly good mood, not acting so cold with anyone who wasn't me or her sister all of the time. Although I did occasionally find that mannerism attractive, I was glad to see her like that. We were probably both feeling the effect of being finally able to openly live as a couple without any kind of obstacles or having to lie about it.
We were able to meet up with Sam's friends again and we spent our whole last day in the city with Charlotte, walking along the Thames and parks I hadn't seen yet, including one that had a beautiful botanical garden in it. I tried to contain my weirdly big knowledge about plants and flowers I had thanks to Vic, but I didn't really succeed.
I guessed me and Lauren weren't the only ones who'd noticed Sam's mood change, because Charlotte pulled me aside as Sam was answering a phone call at one point.
"You know, I haven't seen her so happy in a really long time. I'd say you're the reason behind it, so thank you. I guess you know she's been through some stuff" she said, an almost affectionate look on her face as she moved her blonde bangs from her face.
"Yeah, I know. I've noticed too" I smiled. "It feels weird to say you're welcome, but you're welcome"
"You should, I'm pretty sure it's all thanks to you" she playfully patted my shoulder.
"I don't know, but I'm happy if that's true" I shrugged. "Her sister told me the exact same thing, so that's that"
"See? I'm not the only one who noticed the sudden change. If her family's also saying it, it's definitely true"
"Yeah...I'm gonna meet her parents in a few days, so we'll see. I'm kind of terrified" I said with a laugh, trying not to show how literally terrified I actually was.
"Oh, you'll be fine. Her parents are really chill people, I've met them a few times. I'm sure they'll love you" she reassured me.
"I hope so. I was scared of meeting you and the others too and it turned out fine, so that's that"
"Scared of meeting us?? Unless Sam told you some weird story that paints us as scary people, you really shouldn't have! You need to work on your self-confidence, darling"
"I know" I laughed before Sam walked towards us again.
"Can you believe people from work need me during my only month of holiday too?" she groaned, putting her phone back in her pocket.
"It's 'cause they see you working so much all of the time, so they probably think you don't mind" I jokingly said, although I wasn't probably completely wrong. I was sure not every professor worked as much as she did.
"You workaholic" Charlotte laughed, shaking her head.
"That's not the reason. Some people at work are just incompetent, I guess" she shrugged, grabbing my hand and kissing the top of it. "Are you two tired of walking yet? We should stop at a cafè or something" she added, probably projecting what she wanted to do onto us.
That evening Sam insisted on taking me out to dinner, to celebrate our last evening in London. And as much as I told her we didn't need to go anywhere fancy, seeing that it would most likely end up paying for everything, we ended up in a glamorous Italian restaurant right on the side of the Thames, "because we deserved to treat ourselves".
Maybe she was right, the gorgeous view of the city at night and the whole atmosphere kept any thought about meeting Sam's parents the following day away from my mind.
"Sam?" I mumbled once we got back home, as I layed in bed with my eyes closed but still fully clothed. I probably got taken away with how many glasses of wine I'd drunk.
"Yes my love?" she asked from the other side of the room, dressing into more comfortable clothes for bed. Probably a good idea.
"What if your parents hate me?" I asked, not bothering to open my eyes.
"They won't" was the only thing she said before I felt her sitting next to me. "You are not falling asleep fully clothed. And with your shoes on"
"I'm not asleep" I corrected her.
"You're gonna be soon" she chuckled. "Did you drink more than I thought you had?"
"Well, I didn't want you to be drinking most of the bottle so I did" I said before I realized that didn't sound too nice. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that" I finally sat up.
"Stop worrying about what you say" she chuckled, kissing my forehead. "You're right, better you than me" she added before I followed her advice and got changed into my pajamas. "Also, really, don't worry. They haven't seen me since I left for New York so they'll probably be more focused on me at first. If that can make you feel better"
"I guess so" I sighed, lying back down with my head on her lap.
"And I really can't remember the last time they didn't like someone, so unless you do something really rude or disrespectful, you're good" she said, which did pretty much reassure me because I knew I was barely going to be able to speak to them at first, let alone say something rude.
"Okay" I said, blindly searching for one of her hands so I could hold it. "But you know, I'm really happy to visit your hometown. I'm excited"
"I'm excited too. I'm sure you'll love it as much as London" Sam said, gently kissing my forehead again.
"What are you looking at me like that for?" I giggled after a few seconds of complete silence, as she looked at me with a small smile and slightly squinted eyes.
"Am I not allowed to lovingly admire my girlfriend?"
"Of course" I snuggled closer to her. "I just thought there was more to it"
"You just look really pretty, your eyes are so green" she shrugged lying down next to me.
"You're beautiful" I just said, feeling like my eyes were closing again. "I love you" I mumbled before falling asleep.
I really did mean what I said about being happy about it all. Anxiety aside, I was actually way more focused on how excited I was to visit Sam's hometown and all of the places she'd actually grown up in. She'd never talked much about it, I just knew it was a countryside small town where everyone pretty much knew each other.
So, leaving London was quite bittersweet, I'd really started to get used to living there after less than a week, and I just loved every part of the city Sam had shown me. Hopefully I'd be able to go back there as soon as possible. And hopefully, I'd be with Sam then too.
We luckily hadn't come back home too late the previous evening because we needed to leave for the station quite early the next morning, and I wanted to have time to get ready and properly thank Lauren for letting us stay at her house.
I immediately noticed that the train station wasn't as crowded as New York's central one, maybe because the spaces were organized better or maybe there were just less people. But getting on a train was a fairly less stressful experience than anytime I'd taken one to go back home.
And I only discovered how pretty the London countryside was once we were halfway through the train ride, completely away from the city area. The morning light made the grass look very vividly green, occasional small houses appearing in the landscape. Maybe the train being half-empty and us being the only people in the carriage made it even better.
"I never used to appreciate this enough when I was younger" Sam said as I'd been admiring the view in silence for a while, placing a hand on top of mine, which was resting on my lap.
"It's really nice here. It all looks so peaceful" I turned towards her, noticing there was something slightly off in the look on her face. She looked somewhat disturbed by something. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine" she said with a weirdly long sigh, which indicated anything but being fine.
"Are you sure about that?" I cautiously asked. I knew she still needed to work on not lying about her own feelings, but I was sure she'd eventually get there.
"It's nothing. I'm just suddenly feeling nostalgic. And slightly nervous, for some reason" she shrugged, leaning her head on my shoulder, even if she had to bend her neck a significant amount to do that because of the height difference.
"That's not nothing. Going home and seeing your parents after a long time is a very valid reason to be feeling like that. Is there anything I can do?" I laid my head on top of hers.
"I guess not. Using you as a human pillow is more than enough"
"Okay, then" I laughed, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing her into a hug.
"It's just that...I haven't been keeping in touch with my parents a lot in the past few years. Not because I didn't want to hear from them, or they didn't want to hear from me. We've just never been very communicative, I guess. I only recently realized maybe that affected me more than I thought" she said after some silence.
"I'm sure they'll be happy to see you, then" I attempted to reassure her.
"Of course, and I'm happy to see them. Really happy. But, you know, I was a totally different person last time I saw them. I don't know, it's silly"
"Stop saying that, it's not silly. I get what you mean. But you'll be fine, I promise. And I'll be there the whole time, if that makes you feel any better"
"Definitely" she chuckled, kissing my cheek. "Let's focus on the positive stuff, like the fact that you're gonna hear more stories about younger me. And that we'll be arriving in less than twenty minutes"
a/n: sorry for the kind of short chapter, i just felt like this should be separate from the next one because it makes more sense this way :)
hope everyone's having a good day<3