don't you go // lrh

/thirty three/

/San Francisco/

/amara/

I woke up to calloused fingers on my forehead, cheek, chin, jawline, upper lip. My eyelids fluttered open and closed while I adjusted to the light.

It's so bright in here, is the first coherent thought I have.

The light's bouncing off the light colored carpet. The white, crisp duvet, the white fluffy pillow I've got between my arms. It's coming through French doors and it's see through curtains. One of the doors is cracked open and a tiny sliver of the blue grey sky has cut through.

"Morning." Luke says in a half whisper, using a gentle voice since I'm just now coming into consciousness.

"How'd I get up here?" I yawn, not remembering waking up, getting out of the car, or getting into this bed.

I'm still in my jeans from yesterday.

"Carried you." He says and I am pulled into the morning completely by force.

"Are we there yet?" I ask, sitting up, rubbing the crust out of me eyes.

"Yup. I'm actually kinda glad you missed the ending." He chuckles.

"So, is this the surprise?" I wonder, looking around the nicely decorated room.

Luke nods, motioning with his head toward the French doors. He grabs me by both hands and leads me to what I'm seeing is a balcony. I step out onto it, feeling the cool tile floor beneath my feet. The slight breeze brushes hair out of my face. I smell the water, listen to the waves, adjust my eyes to being outside, and finally see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

"San Francisco?" I ask excitedly, tearing my eyes from the view to look at him.

"We stayed a few houses down a while back. I love it here." Luke nods at the horizon.

"I wanted to come back for ages. But I wanted you to come with me."

"I've never been here before." I chuckle, taking in the ocean view, warm hands gripping onto the metal railing, peeking over.

"No?"

"No I was supposed to but um," I shake my head, not wanting to ruin the moment by bringing all that up.

Luke didn't seem to mind. He probably thinks I trailed off because I'm distracted by the view.

"We better get started then."

After freshening up in the luxury bathroom, I went downstairs thinking all our friends would be waiting for me. We would have a big breakfast and group meeting to kick off the day or something.

But it was just Luke, waiting for me with freshly brewed tea, still steaming, and croissants.

"I tried to make it look cool." He shrugs, letting out a chuckle when he sees me coming into the room.

I caught him in the middle of arranging them nicely with other baked goods on a plate he must've found digging through the kitchen cupboards. I smiled back at him, nobody's ever really cared that much about what I think.

"It looks cool." I promise.

I sat down at the small table with him and relished in the fact that it's just us two. Finally just us two. When he finishes the last of his black coffee, he tells me to change into a bathing suit.

I didn't even notice Maddie snuck in my Polaroid camera along with some bikinis while she was repacking my bag. It would've given some element of the surprise away if Luke told me to pack them himself.