Page 41 of With This Lie

“The puppy dog face thing,” he says.

“But I’m not,” I say. I push out my lip and make the biggest puppy dog eyes I can.

“Fine. You know what? Fine, I’ll do it. But I want two kisses.”

“Deal,” I say, perking up. I love the smell of victory.

Lucas unfolds his arms slowly and approaches the tank I have my arm in. He peers down into the water and grimaces. He dips his fingers in and I see his shoulders tense up. “It’s so cold,” he says.

“Don’t be such a wuss,” I say.

He shoots a look in my direction and plunges his arm deeper into the water until his hand touches the same starfish mine is touching.

I smile the biggest smile I can manage.

“Don’t do that,” he says.

“What?” I ask.

“Grin at me, so pleased with yourself,” he says.

“But I am.”

“Oh, I know you are,” he says.

We take turns touching more things in the tanks. I can’t tell you what half of them are, but I am having a blast and Lucas is glad I’m having a blast. He isn’t much for touching the things himself, though he is a good sport about it.

We reach the end of the aquarium and there is a gift shop. I shoot Lucas a “pretty please” look and he nods his head. I take him by the hand and drag him inside.

I’m looking at refrigerator magnets and keychains when Lucas walks up to me with a gift bag already in hand.

“I got you something,” he says, looking pleased with himself.

“You did?” I ask, surprised and excited.

“Yep, but you’ll have to wait until we get to the car,” he says.

He holds his hand out to me and we walk out together, still on a happy high from the day. I check my phone for the first time and it’s later than I thought.

“Wow, we were out all day,” I say.

“I’m not complaining,” he says.

“Oh, me neither. I’m just surprised.”

We get to the car and he opens the door for me. I sit down inside, and he goes around to his side, sliding in next to me.

“You ready?” he asks.

“Ready!” I say.

He holds out the bag and I take it into my lap, opening the top. I remove the paper inside to find a large stuffed pink octopus. It’s soft and adorable I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

“Do you like it?” he asks.

“Oh my god, I love it!” I say. “It’s perfect and cute and ridiculous in the best way.” I hug it to my chest and smile.

“Good, I’m glad,” he says.

“This may be the best gift,” I say.

“Well, that’s because I haven’t given you your birthday gift,” he says, smirking.

“Stop it,” I say.

Lucas pulls out of the parking lot and we head back. I put on some soft music and we hold hands the entire way back, enjoying the music and a comfortable quiet between us.

Today Lucas had given me something so many had failed to do, something so many weren’t even interested in doing actually. Today, we were just a normal couple. We went out on a regular date and did regular couple things. Now I had a pink octopus for my bed, a tangible memory to hold onto. Perhaps that wasn’t the best idea, given this would all fall apart at some point. But I didn’t care. I wanted to pretend, just for today.

Today, we were more. Today, we were something.

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