Me before you

chapter 19

Lights danced against the dark red wine, making patterns shine in the glass. All around, the low buzz of conversation and clinking cutlery filled the warm air, the gentle melody of an old love song playing in the background. The air was rich and scented with spices and oil – she'd forgotten how good the food was here. And Sana had never even tried it, which was why they were there in the first place. Something like that.

Y/n lifted her eyes from her food, feeling a smile quirk over her lips and dance in her chest as she met Sana's gaze. Her dark eyes were shining in the gentle candlelight of the restaurant, expertly lined with makeup. Y/n paused, words dancing on the tip of her tongue. "Told you so."

"Okay," Sana's rich voice was full of happiness and acceptance. "Good luck trying to get me to admit it past tonight but..." Dark eyes lifted to hers. "You were right."

"Right?" Y/n exclaimed. She grinned, nodded. "Caravaggio's. Hands down the best damn date restaurant in the country. How's your pretentious city restaurant now?"

"Don't push it." Sana warned, perfectly coiffed eyebrows raising pointedly. An elegant hand closed around the stem of her wine glass. Y/n watched the brunette raise it to her red lips and take a sip, dark hair shining. When she put the glass back down, her eyes met Y/n's. "This was an excellent move by the way. Joking about romantic restaurants, sending those flowers to my house. I think you know what you're doing."

"All I know right now that I want to spend more time with you." Y/n told her honestly. "But, you know," She smiled, coyly shrugging her shoulders up as much as she could. "Once I realized we've never actually had a fancy date without my parents around..." She gave her a look. "I did tell you I wanted to do this properly."

"You certainly did." Sana mouth quirked into an approving smile. "You're smoother than I gave you credit for."

"Damn right," Y/n affirmed, grinning. She paused, raising an eyebrow towards their wine glasses. "I'll toast to that."

"I'll toast, but you'll have to think of a better reason." Sana allowed coyly. Fucking hell, Y/n thought, watching the play of the candlelight against her skin and hair. She lifted her glass again, raising it into the space between them. "How about..." Her eyes met Y/n's. "To new beginnings."

Y/n smiled, watching the red wine drink in the light before she realised Sana was actually doing a toast. She glanced towards her own glass, and a laugh burst from her throat. "Yeah, babe, you're gonna have to do that for me,"

"Do – oh, right," Sana nodded, realizing what she meant, and reached across the table to take Y/n's drink in her other hand without another word. "To new beginnings," she repeated, clinking their glasses together between them.

"To new beginnings!" Y/n affirmed, watching the glasses touch and feeling the ringing in her chest.

Sana took another sip of her own drink before setting it down, and offered Y/n her glass, but she shook her head. She wasn't doing it for the drink anyway. She was already drunk – drunk on warmth and dizzy with happiness.

This past week had been the first that Sana had spent shadowing the mayor – filing, faxing, sitting the town council – which meant her time spent in Y/n's annex had been definitively less. They'd time: Sana would come and spend a few hours with her, probably cook something or wheel her somewhere she needed to go, talk, read her a chapter of that godawful spy book. It was nice, in a way: it was nice to have time to miss her. But their new, more normal hours together made Y/n even more determined to do this properly, to do this right. Because whatever it was, Sana deserved it. Truth be told, she deserved more than Y/n could ever give her. But hell if she wasn't going to try.