𝑆𝐴𝑉𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝐷𝑅𝐴𝐶𝑂 𝑀𝐴𝐿𝐹𝑂𝑌

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟖 - 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 № 𝟒

╭────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ──────╮

Useless fact of the day: The Spotify playlist for this story is a window to the future. Well, not actually but all of the era-accurate songs that I put in there either have or eventually will show up in the story. I don't know who would care about this but anyhow.
As always, listen to the song when it comes into the chapter for maximum immersion.

⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼

𝐃

I don't want to talk about the next morning because I am still embarrassed about it. I am embarrassed about the entire day to be perfectly honest with you. But I think that it is a crucial day to remember when telling our story and it wouldn't do it justice if I were to skip forward.

So, here is to the first time we visited the record store.

⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼

I waited underneath the fairy lights in the middle of Borough Market. I had my hands folded so as to keep them from hanging awkwardly on each of my sides. I was almost sure I could smoke here but decided it would be rude in any case. I was looking up and was thinking to myself that this was indeed the most perfect place to call place № 3.

"You're early!" called the voice behind me.

"You're late."

I turned to look. I was reminded again of how stunning she looked. Hair in a braid as always, her cheeks rosy in the cold, her usual coat freshly brushed from black cat hair, two small, gold hoop earrings showing right and left. She was wearing a turtleneck today with an odd pattern that she was trying to hide. The collar was dark blue but the rest of it looked colourful with greens and reds.

"Goodmorning..."

"Happy birthday! - Again..."

She was holding two cups of eggnog. I recognised the cups from the stand by which we had bought on our way in yesterday. Despite that, I wanted to hug her, so I made way and closed her in my arms. I had forgotten how tiny she felt sometimes and how her neck could sometimes be closed easily close to my chest. I felt her heart beating quickly near my abdomen. Maybe she had been running to reach me. I released her.

I noticed she was very shy to look at me. I waited to see if she would say something about the Starry Night present but as expected, she did not yet. She gave me one cup and told me to be careful how I sip this time.

"What are you wearing?" I asked with a cringe and tried to open the fly of her coat. She slapped my hand at once.

"Knock it off..." she said. "Let's go."

"Was that a snowflake?"

"Here we go... I was trying to save time this morning because this is going to be a very stressful day and then I realised how stupid that sounded because of course you were going to laugh and I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier-"

She was almost running away from me now, which was hard for her to do. Two grand steps and I was in front of her. She was closing her coat in front of her to hide the sweater.

"Hey, hey, hey! What is all this? I don't understand a thing?"

She looked around uncomfortably but then I smiled wider and she relaxed.

"Ugly Christmas sweaters," she said and she revealed a horrid garment, "are a family tradition when we put up the Christmas tree. And because I completely forgot that I had to do it yesterday, I have to do it today. I have to be back at 2. But I wanted to save as much time with you as possible, so I made sure that I had everything ready for it. I transferred everything in the living room, I ran to the coffee shop and refilled our chocolate stock because Mum forgot to... I even put on the fucking sweater..." she said and looked down.