Where You Are

Windsor

Jesse

I was feeling much better about life in general the following morning. I couldn't believe Birgitta had actually taken a sickie to stay longer in London with me. I wasn't about to waste this opportunity. I wouldn't have left the flat at all until Birgitta and I both had to be back at Heathrow, but the sad reality was that I had hardly any food left. And I needed to feed my girlfriend, it was my duty to keep her energy up to take advantage what little time we had left together.

So after breakfast, reluctantly, I got dressed and watched Birgitta do the same in the clothes she'd bought at the charity shop that were definitely staying with me and than headed out for the supermarket just down the road from my flat. I wrapped my arm tightly around her shoulders, not willing to give her even an inch of space.

Things were vastly different between us now than they had been twenty-four hours prior. We'd been in love before, I had no doubts about that, but things were just... different now. More intense, yet safer at the same time. There was a bit more security in the relationship now. I knew she trusted me completely now, that I was fully forgiven for snooping around her flat in Moncton, and I was going to have a very hard time letting her go in the morning.

She pushed the trolley and I had my hands on either side of hers, fighting the urge to wrap my arms around her middle like I really wanted to and hold her flush against my body in a way that was not at all appropriate for the supermarket.

'I love how all your chips come in individual bags,' she grinned up at me.

'Crisps,' I corrected her.

'Oh, right,' she rolled her eyes and ducked out from under my arms.

'Oi!' I protested, lunging for her again, but she skipped out of reach.

'We are in England, I guess they really are crisps,' she mused like she hadn't heard my outburst.

She examined the different flavours.

'No all-dressed here,' I smirked at her.

'There is prawn though,' she said with her flawless British accent and a cheeky grin.

'Of course there is,' I reached for her again but she ducked away further down the aisle to examine the crisps as if they were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.

'Is there a specific brand you prefer, or will any kind do?' She turned back and asked me as if my answer mattered a great deal and she wasn't playing a maddening game with me.

'Any kind,' I shrugged. 'They pair well with naughty books.'

Her cheeks flushed and I couldn't help my grin.

'You don't need naughty books,' she admonished me. 'You can have the real thing.'

Damn it.

'Okay, let's go home, then,' I lunged for her. Once last night and once that morning weren't near enough to make up for all the time I'd wasted being ill.

She laughed out loud and ducked, but wasn't prepared for my second dive. I caught her around the middle and pinned her to the crisp shelf, knocking a few bags to the ground.

She was the one who reached for me, wrapping her arms around my neck and snogging me in the middle of the supermarket. The crisp aisle would never be the same for me. I'd think of her and the way she smelled, tasted and felt here in my arms every time I was here.

'I'm serious,' I told her, already feeling my blood rushing away from my brain.

'I know you are,' she said, cheeks still pink and panting a bit for breath. 'We should probably buy some food first though, right?'