Tom smiled at me, once again showing off his cute dimple, and I grinned back.
"So where are we going on this date?" I asked as Tom led me out of the lounge and into the hallway. He opened the door as he replied.
"That you will find out when we get there." He gestured for me to leave first so I did, then he shut the door behind me and linked his arm with mine while we walked down the steps. I blushed as he opened the car door for me then sat down behind the driver's wheel, leaning across and kissing me on the cheek before he started the engine.
It wasn't even five minutes before I had no clue where we were. I didn't recgonise this area in the slightest - we were turning off at just about every road possible, and after fifteen minutes or less there were green fields appearing either side of us, despite the fact we were still close to the centre of London. You could see the buildings in the near distance but right now, it was like we were driving through a lake of green in the middle of a concrete jungle. It was beautiful and I couldn't believe that I never knew it was just twenty minutes from where I lived.
My amazement didn't last long though, as just a few mintues later Tom pulled down a small lane with tall hedges either side, so you could see nothing but the road straight ahead and behind you, then turned left into a gravel car park. Although it wasn't really a car park - it was more of a stoney area with nine or ten cars lined up alonside each other, next to a large cottage-like building. He pulled up next to a car on the end of the row then came round to help me out of the car. His car was bigger than mine, so when you were stepping out of that in a dress and high heels onto gravel, a girl needed a bit of help. I wrapped my arm around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder as we walked over to the building, and when we stepped inside I realised it was actually a pub. We walked past the quiet bar and into an extension off the side, which was a restaurant with about fifteen tables. I looked up at Tom with a smile and he winked back at me. It was such a nice place. The tables were spaced out so you weren't on top of each other, but at the same time it had a really cosy atmosphere.
"So what would you like to eat?" Tom said as we sat down.
"I'm not sure...where are the menus?" I said. Almost on cue a waitress came over with some laminated sheets in her hand.
"Good evening! I'll be your waitress for this evening, my name is Stacey. Would you like the afternoon tea menu or the evening dinner menu?" She asked in a voice as smooth as honey.
"Afernoon tea menu please." Tom said. She handed us each a menu with a smile then left.
"This place looks amazing..." I exclaimed as I looked down the menu. Cream teas, about fifteen different cakes, toast, crumpets - you named it and it probably would have been on there.
"What would you like? Order anything you like." Tom said. I smiled, biting my lip as I looked into his wide, chocolate brown eyes. He was treating me like a princess - but I loved it.
"I think I'll have...a tea and a slice of carrot cake." I said after much debate.
"Fair enough. I think I'm gonna have a coffee and a slice of victoria sponge." He said. Again, as if she had an abnormal sense of hearing and knew exactly when to appear, Stacey appeared almost straight away.
"So what can I get you?" she asked in her bright voice.
"Can we have a tea, a coffee, a slice of carrot cake and a slice of victoria sponge please?" Tom requested. She smiled broadly in agreement and took our menus then bustled off. She came back less than five minutes later with our orders. The cakes were huge.
"Wow!" I remarked when she'd left.
"I know right!" Tom replied. I had some of my cake, which was delicious, while I waited for my tea to cool down, then sipped on it while Tom and I talked.
"So how did you even know this place was here?" I asked.
"We used to come here quite a lot when I was younger, then when I was trying to think of somewhere to bring you this seemed like the perfect place." Tom replied. We carried on with small conversations while we ate and drank, but it was never boring - I could never get bored listening to Tom. I could sit and listen to him talking all day, snuggled up in his arms...
"Are you finished?" Stacey asked politely, snapping me out of my daydream. I said yes and thanked her, handing over my plate and cup. Tom paid the bill and then took my hand, pulling me out my seat and guiding me out the restaraunt. I started to head towards the car when we got outside but he pulled me in the other direction, towards the other side of the pub where you could just see a rectangle of grass poking out. I was confused as to where he was taking me but, when we were past the pub and out the back, there was a dip - completely hidden from even a short distance - with a small river running through the centre with a small group of trees on this side off to the right. The grass was so soft and green and the water so clear and blue that it almost seemed fake, like something out of a movie. But it was real. And Tom had taken me here.
"This is amazing!" I exclaimed. Tom grinned at me and, still holding my hand, walked down the steep grass slope and towards the river, veering off right towards the trees. He made his way straight through the middle and I took two steps before tumbling.
"Wait, Tom! I can't walk through this in heels! I can hardly walk in heels as it is!" I said. He turned around and bent over, telling me to lift up one foot then the other. He took off my shoes and handed them to me, then swept me up and carried me bridal-style. I giggled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and he carried me through the trees and over all the roots. I was wondering how on earth he was going to find his way back out again, but then we came to a clearing just next to the river with a picnic blanket, a picnic basket and a few Chinese lanterns, all different sizes arranged in the corner of the blanket by the river.
"Oh my gosh..." I breathed. Tom carried me on to the picnic blanket then placed me down lightly, sitting down next to me and taking a bottle out of the basket.
"I've got to drive us back, so it's not exactly champagne..." he said, slightly embarassed, as he turned the bottle round and revealing that it was a bottle of Shloer. I laughed.
"I don't care about that! Who cares if we're not drinking champagne! This is perfect enough with or without it." He smiled and took out two glasses, pouring them both and handing one to me.
"And I know we just ate, but I've got some food for a bit if you get hungry." Tom said, waving his hand at the basket. I said nothing, just smiled and rested my head on his shoulder. It couldn't seem more perfect. But of course it got better.
We sat there for two hours, just talking between each other in quiet conversations. You'd think we would have got bored but we didn't - every conversation that Tom and I had was magical and perfect, even if we were just talking about something silly and boring. When the sun started to set Tom took his phone out and put on some music. He stood up and held his hand out for me to take, so I did and he pulled me up. We put our arms around each other and started to sway to the music, side to side as we stared into each other's eyes. I looked into his and all of a sudden I could see our whole future together. Having our first dance at our wedding, similar to now, then bringing home our first child...waving them off to school...sending them off to university...watching them leave home and starting a family...growing old together...
Though I didn't imagine us falling into the river. I was snapped abruptly out of my fantasy by the freezing cold water which I was sitting in.
"Shit shit shit!" Tom said. It was very shallow as we were only just in it - we were sitting in only about fifteen centimetres of water - but it was freezing cold and horrible even so. He shuffled onto the grass and lifted me out then he sat down on the picnic blanket with his legs stretched out. He took his shoes and socks off and rolled his trousers up slightly and quickly dried off his feet then reached his arms out to me. He pulled me into a hug and I sat on his lap, facing him, my legs wrapped around him. Tom hugged me close to him and whispered in my ear,
"Are you okay?" and I nodded. Then we started to laugh.
"How did that even happen?" Tom giggled.
"I have no idea!" I replied in the midst of my laughing fit. One second I was happily dreaming, the next I was sitting in a river with everything from my waist down completely soaked. As Tom hugged me he started fiddling with my hair, so I closed my eyes and rested my head gently on his shoulder. I wasn't tired but I easily could have fallen asleep.
A few minutes later Tom stopped fiddling with my hair and kissed me on the cheek. I opened my eyes and lifted my head, then realised Tom had plaited my hair to the side.
"How did you know how to do that?" I marvelled.
"Sometimes I used to plait Carrie's hair for her." he said. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Sometimes." he repeated. I smiled and gave him a light kiss then said,
"It looks really nice."
"Why don't we have some food?" Tom suggested. I nodded and unwrapped my legs from around him, sliding off his lap and onto the blanket beside him. He swivelled his legs and knelt up and pulled the picnic basket over towards us, then opened it up.
"You can choose." he said and he slid the basket closer to me. I peered inside and there was so much! Chocolate covered strawberries, perfectly cut mini sandwiches, a couple of cupcakes, mini kebab sticks, all sorts of romantic and picnicky foods.
"I can't choose!" I exclaimed with a laugh.
"Well...have one of everything!" Tom said. I shrugged and pulled the contents of the basket out one by one and placed them down on the blanket. We both started eating but, since we'd already had food, we didn't really have that much.
An hour or two later and the sun had completely set, and Tom and I were lying down on the blanket side by side, staring up at the stars. It was a clear night, with no clouds at all in the sky, so it was beautiful - but it also meant it was cold. That mixed with the fact I was still wet from the river meant that I was very cold. Although Tom had his arms wrapped around me I started to shiver slightly and before long I was shaking loads. Tom, who had been half asleep, realised and sat up, pulling me onto his lap and squeezing me tight. He rubbed his hands up down my arms and I rested my head back on his shoulder. I turned it to the side and looked at him and he bent his head forward and gave the top of my arm a kiss.
"Maybe we should go. It's getting late and it's freezing cold." Tom said. I nodded in agreement, happy to be leaving to go somewhere warmer, but disappointed that we were ending the date. It was such a nice evening and I hadn't wanted it to end, ever.
"I really need to get out of these clothes when I get home." I said with a shiver then I helped Tom pack the food and blanket into the basket, holding it in my lap as he carried me back out through the trees and up the hill back to the car. We sat in the car and immediately turned on the heating, warming up a bit before Tom drove off.
The journey back seemed much shorter than on the way because there wasn't the anticipation or excitement of where Tom was taking me. I knew he was taking me home. I thought about how we'd danced together as the sun set, then laid side by side and stared at the stars, and realised how we hadn't done anything at all similar for weeks.
"Tom, have you had this planned since you came out of hospital?" I asked Tom. He looked a bit embarrassed as he nodded.
"I wanted to wait until the doctor said I was okay because I didn't want anything going wrong. But I didn't want to wait any longer than that." he said as he parked the car outside my flat and we got out. I smiled and walked round, giving him a hug. We walked up the steps to my door hand in hand and he slipped his arm around my waist from behind as I unlocked and opened the door, then he turned me around and kissed me once we were inside. I smiled as his lips crashed onto mine and I placed my hand gently on his jaw, resting my fingers lightly on his cheek. It was completely dark as I hadn't turned the lights on yet, so we couldn't really see anything but Tom held me tight even so and carried me into the lounge. There he sat me down on the sofa, kneeling over me and kissing me lightly up and down my face and neck. When he came back up he whispered softly to me and I stared into his eyes, which were just centimetres from mine, as he did so.
"What was it that I said a few weeks ago, about how I hadn't seen your bedroom yet?" he said and I smiled.
"Hmm...and what was it I was saying earlier about how I needed to get out of these clothes when I got home?" I said with a wink. He smiled back at me and kissed me again on the lips, then he stood up and pulled me up and we walked slowly to the bedroom, kissing all the way and not letting go of each other. Tom held me against the door and I fumbled blindly for the handle behind me and when I finally got hold of it I twisted it round and we fell in and onto the bed. I shuffled into a sitting position, my legs to the side and leant on my hands which were on Tom's thighs. He slid his hands up my thighs and clutched hold of the still-wet material of my dress then made his way round the back, eventually finding the zip and undoing it, opening the back of my dress. He slid it down to my waist and I ran my hands up his back, inside his shirt, as he unhooked my bra. Then I came back round to the front and unbuttoned it and revealed his firm chest and I knelt up as I tore the shirt off his arms and we shuffled up, moving the duvet out the way while I ran my hand through Tom's hair and down his back.
•Sorry this is quite late!! I've not long finished it. I hope you er...liked the last bit ;)
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