Bitter (wlw) (teacherxstudent)

seventy-two

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".