Bliss

twenty one

True to his word, Spencer arrives half an hour later with two indistinct tickets and a smile so wide I'm certain I'd be able to see it from the moon. He slips the tickets into his back pocket before I get a chance to look at them and throws his arm around me, steering me towards the little green gate at the end of the front garden.

"Where are we going?" I ask as he threads his fingers through mine.

"That's for me to know and you to find out my little Lizzie-bear."

Lizzie-bear.

He hasn't called me that in months.

I used to hate it. Found it patronising and squeamishly sweet. I used to beg him to call me something else. Anything will do, I would say when he asked for alternatives. But Lizzie-bear stuck until one day it didn't.

I don't want to try and match its demise to a point in our messy relationship timeline. I don't want to wonder if he stopped because of someone else. Someone like Penelope. After all, if I want this to work, like really work, it has to be a clean slate. I can't hold things against him, not when I've said all is forgiven.

So I guess I'm Lizzie-bear again. And you know what, I'm happy about. Ecstatic even. For as long as I'm Lizzie-bear, we're okay.

"So, Spence." I squeeze his hand and stare up at him.

He smiles. It's his happy smile, content and picture-perfect, dazzling like a winking star. I drink it in, a smile of my own unfurling as I bathe in his happiness. He captures my smile the moment he presses his mouth to mine, and for a moment, I forget my own name.

Cheesy, I know, but depressingly true.

"What were you saying?" he asks, his front two teeth sinking into his rosebud lips.

"I...I..."

"Come on," he teases as he throws an arm around me and tugs me into his side. "You remember."

"Stop it." I elbow him, and he doubles over.

"Lizzie-bear," he says, faux horror twisting his features into a rather constipated expression. "You winded me."

"You deserve it, dazzling me like that."

"I dazzle you?"

"Every day."

He grins, forcing me to take a large gulp of air, and brushes his lips against my nose. "You dazzle me too."

"Anyway." I roll my eyes and push aside the giddy feeling that flutters through me. "I was going to ask what you're doing this Thursday."

"I have nothing planned. But my parents are going to be away till Sunday evening." His fingers trail up my arm, dance across my neck and tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "You could tell your parents you're staying with Jess. We'd have the whole house to ourselves."

"As tempting as that sounds," I laugh, "I thought we'd go to a party."

"Nobody's throwing a party this Thursday."

"Nobody you know."

"Who do you know that I don't?" His smile lines deepen, and he bumps his hip against mine.

"Just a girl I met on holiday," I say. "She and her friend are throwing a party, and they invited us."

"A girl you met on holiday?" Suddenly he's not smiling.

"She's kinda, sorta dating Henry. But she's good fun, and I think we could have a good time."

"So, does that mean you'll finally tell me what went down on this little holiday of yours?"