Their history had been complicated. Not necessarily combined complicated, but they each came from a complicated place. For years he had hidden within his trauma while she had lived within hers until they found safety in one another’s presence. It was unconventional but it worked for them, and to have finally gotten to a place where they could do something as simple as get one another gifts before a date felt so insanely significant. He dropped his hands, letting them claim her waist while she helped him in getting his bowtie on and when he was done he let go just long enough to step back and let her get a proper look at him. “Do I? I feel dapper as fuck.” Calum said excitedly as he ran his fingers through his messy brown locks. The distance only lasting a second before their wrapped up in one another again. “When we first started talking about leaving I was a little nervous. I don’t know what was keeping me so attached to California but it was like a safe place. But I don’t really feel like I need to be attached there anymore either. You’re my safe place now. So as long as I have you, I’ll follow you anywhere.” He assured her as he kissed her again. “But I do think we’re going to need to get married while we’re here because I don’t think I’m going to be able to last much longer without making this official.” He teased as he tugged lightly at her shirt.
He could tell right away that a different instinct was going to take over if they’d kept up the way they were, so he let himself stand there kissing her, pressing her back slightly against the couch for another minute before forcing himself to pull away to at least an arm’s length of a distance. “Okay. I am going to find a vase for your flowers. If you want to grab whatever else you think we’re going to need and I think we should go, baby. Otherwise, we’re never going to leave the house and we already haven’t done that in like 3 days.” He said, unsure if he was saying this more to convince her or himself as he took a breath to try and give himself to will power to back away.
They are always one wrong move away from ruining their own plans. Callie could have been swayed so easily. Lingering against the couch, kissing him, for even a second longer and she would have forgotten all about the walk, would have taken everything off him but the bow tie. “House unpacked first,” she shot back flirtatiously when he tugged at her shirt and spoke of marriage. “When I make you carry my over the threshold as your wife I don’t want it to be in a house full of unpacked boxes. I want it to be in our home, a finished home, spaces claimed and prepared for our life together.” Even though she knows it’s for the best, her skin misses the warmth of him when he pulls away. She bites down on her lower lip to keep from pouting. “Right, yes. You do the flowers, I will finish our picnic basket.”
It had been half packed with the non perishables, but now she moved to the kitchen to raid the fridge for the sandwiches - peanut butter and jelly, and ham and cheese, potato salad, ants on a log, fruit salad. Callie wasn’t a great cook so she’d gone for items that weren’t hard to tackle, but it had felt nice to cook for Calum. To put a meal together for them. She’d even gone so far as to get an actual picnic basket, and when she met Calum by the front door, she was wielding it proudly. They were going to do this, go out into the world on a date instead of lounging around the house like shut ins. “Are you ready for our dalliance with the outside world, good Sir?” She puts on an affected accent, does a fake curtsy, and reaches her hand out towards him, playful smile on her face.
