"Lottie," I heard.

"Go away."

"Lottie."

My mind was foggy and I couldn't make sense of what was going on. I stretched and pressed my face into my pillow. "No, go away," I said sleepily.

I heard a couple of thuds and sighed, trying to fall asleep again. But then I felt a soft tickling on my face and wrinkled my nose. "Why?" I whined, opening my eyes. "Who even-"

"Happy birthday," Ben said. He had on a conical paper hat that fastened under his chin and was decorated with poorly drawn blue balloons. He looked extremely uncomfortable and that made me want to laugh.

"You look great," I said, smiling at him. He leant down so that instead of kneeling, he was on his elbows and eye-level with me.

"I always look great," he replied and patted my head like I was a dog. "Your dad made it."

I stretched out my aching arms and accidentally smacked Ben in the face. "Oops, sorry," I said, patting his cheek. He just laughed and sat up, pulling me with him. I yawned and said, "I'm so tired."

"Your dad made you breakfast, so you should get up."

I cocked my head. "What did he do? Defrost the waffles or put the bread in the toaster?"

"It's a special day, I think he made both."

Abruptly, I leant forward and kissed Ben's cheek, then I stood up, scratching the back of my head. "Let's go then, I'm hungry." Ben stood up as well and yanked the adorable birthday hat off of his head, jamming it onto mine instead.

"That thing was giving me a double chin," he grumbled, running his hand across his jaw.

"Don't blame the hat, Benny," I teased. He just scoffed and nudged my shoulder. I noticed he had put his shirt back on, but I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. I shook my head fiercely to get rid of the image.

"Charlotte!" Papa exclaimed when I entered the kitchen. I grinned at him and ran up to him, giving him a big hug. "Happy birthday, poppet," he said, holding me tightly.

"I heard you cooked me breakfast?"

He let go of me and chuckled. "The very loose definition of 'cooked,' Charlie."

Ben suddenly came up behind me and touched the small of my back. "By cooked he means he went to the bakery and brought back croissants and muffins," he said.

Papa and I laughed, and I saw the big white box from the local bakery and made a beeline for it. I grinned when I saw my favourite chocolate-filled croissant waiting for me, still warm and buttery from the oven.

"You look like a hungry wolf," Ben said, but I ignored his stupid jokes and started eating it. I should've changed and brushed my bird's nest hair before having breakfast, but I was starved.

Papa rubbed my head as I ate and said, "I'm going to Delia's house for a bit, okay? Charlie, Ben said you and him can spend the day however you want, but come home for dinner and presents with Delia and I."

"Okay, Papa," I mumbled. He shook his head and left, and then Ben sat down next to me. "Do you want any?" I asked after I finished the bite in my mouth. He just stared at me, and I frowned and wiped at my mouth self-consciously. "What?"

"What do you want to do today?" he asked.

I smiled dopily and shrugged. "I'm going to say it."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Shut up, don't say it."

"I will."

"No, please, Lottie. Don't."

"Ben, it doesn't matter what we do-"

"Please shut the fuck up."

"-as long as we do it together." I started giggling at the fed-up expression on Ben's face. We had watched a movie a while ago where the couple would say the same such sickly-sweet things, and Ben had hated it.

"Lottie, why do you hate me?" he groaned while I laughed at him.

I shoved the rest of the croissant in my mouth and grinned. Once I'd swallowed, I said, "I'm sorry, but not really." When he just stared at me flatly, I stood up. "Do you want eggs and toast for breakfast?"

Ben pursed his lips and smiled slightly at me, making me return it tenfold. "Yes please."

As I passed his chair on my way to the fridge, I ruffled his hair playfully. "How many eggs?" I asked, turning around to look at him.

Ben looked at me for a second, and then his eyes widened and his hand twitched. "I actually forgot that I'm deathly allergic to eggs and toast."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"Come here, Lottie."

I just stared at him, confused. "How can you be allergic to eggs and toast? You've been eating my baked goods for weeks and you're not dead. You do know that most cakes have eggs?"

Ben leapt out of his chair and grabbed my hand, tugging me out of the kitchen and upstairs. "Go change, we're going out to do something."

I froze and squirmed in his hold. "But you haven't eaten breakfast."

"There's some stuff left in the box, I'll eat one of the scones or something. Just go get ready. Something kind of warm."

"Ben, make sure you eat breakfast!"

He kept pulling me upstairs and then shoved me in my room. "Yeah, I will, don't worry."

The door to my room closed and I stared at it, confused. Deathly allergic to eggs and toast? How dumb did he think I was?

I decided to let it go for the moment, because I was sure that he couldn't be hiding anything bad from me. So I just grabbed some old clothes from the pile I'd left behind when I went to university and took them to my bathroom, where I showered and changed.

Ben was waiting by the front door when I trailed downstairs, and I skipped over to him. His bored expression softened when he saw me, and I smiled at him.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Do you like ice skating?"

I slipped my feet in my shoes and nodded eagerly. "Yeah, are we going to the ice rink in the town centre?"

Ben wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I cuddled against his side as he led me to his car. "Yeah. There's nothing much else to do in this place."

"You're right," I said. "I mean, we could go vandalise something-"

"No," Ben said firmly, shoving me inside and starting up the car.

"I know, Dad," I scoffed, but inside I was kind of disappointed. I'd never done anything particularly bad before, except for not reading my assigned reading books in school, but maybe that was for good reason.

Ben seemed to know his way to the town centre quite well, and we got there faster than I would've gone, mainly because he drove like a speed demon.

"Benny, this isn't NASCAR, slow down please."

He dropped maybe 3mph, but kept going super fast. "We need to get there before ten, otherwise we won't get the free ticket for your birthday."

"How'd you know about that?"

"I just looked it up."

"Did you just look up cheap birthday deals?"

There was a pause, and he glanced at me worriedly. "Yes."

I stared at him blankly, trying to psych him out as if I'd expected him to pay a lot of money for me. Then I beamed and raised my hand. "My kind of guy!" Ben rolled his eyes, noticeably more relaxed, but gave me a high five anyway.

When we reached the town centre and had taken advantage of the fact that it was my birthday, Ben turned to me and adjusted my coat so that it was covering me a bit more.

I smiled, amused. "Ben, I live in England. Cold doesn't affect me that much."

He ignored me and placed his hands over my ears like muffs. "You didn't bring a hat," he said disapprovingly.

I frowned at him and pointed at his thin jacket and lack of hat. "Neither did you, silly." I reached up and flicked his ears. They were already tinged slightly pink from the cold, and we hadn't even entered the ice rink yet.

He stepped back and made a rude face at me. I put my hands on my hips and made a ruder face back. "Real mature," he said.

"Says you!" I replied in a sing-song voice. I bit my lip in an attempt to stop from laughing at his dumb expression, but I couldn't hold it and started giggling.

Ben rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand, pulling me to the ice rink, which was awkward because of the ice skates we wore.

"Do you know how to ice skate?" I asked.

"That would've been more helpful if you'd asked me before we got here," Ben sassed me.

"Considering you're the one who asked if we should come here!"

"Lottie, ask yourself, can I ice skate?"

We got to the actual rink part, and I shoved him hard, causing him to topple over onto the frozen floor. I clapped my hands over my mouth to stop myself from laughing. "I guess not," I said.

"Lottie, what the fuck," he moaned.

I raised my eyebrows. "Are you hurt?" I asked worriedly.

"No, but-"

"Then bye!" I squeaked and spun around seeing that he was struggling to get up and get me back.

"Wait, Lottie-"

"Sorry, I can't hear you!" I spun around a little and started skating backwards, watching him carefully as he got to his feet and then slipped again. I smiled and skidded to a stop, watching him struggle.

Ben was seriously such a cutie!

I hastily slid back to him while he was on his bum and then bent at the waist, wrapping my arms around his neck and squeezing tightly. "Cute!" I said.

Ben froze in my arms, and I stayed like that until I was sure that he was too dazed to try and push me down as well. "What are you doing?" he asked.

I laughed at him and let go. "Oh I don't know, Benny. What is it called when a person puts their arms around another person?"

"Strangling," he said with a perfectly straight face.

I held up a finger. "Ding ding ding! A*, you got it!" I stretched out my hands to him and he took them, pulling himself up.

"Now can we actually skate?" he grumbled, brushing off spare bits of ice from his front.

"Of course, madam."

Ben glared at me, but there was no heart behind it. I grinned cheekily, and he just shook his head.

Antagonising him was so fun.

***

"Do you think they give out free things on people's birthdays?" Ben asked thoughtfully.

I stared at the shop he pointed at. "We don't have an animal, that's a pet grooming salon."

"I've got you," he said.

"Good joke."

We'd already gotten a free ticket at the ice rink, then a free coffee at the coffee shop, and then a free kid's ice cream scoop at a random ice cream shop, and then went to a Italian restaurant and got five percent off the total bill.

"What else should we do?" I asked. I'd really had a wonderful time with Ben, and he'd made it such a wonderful birthday. Perhaps my very best birthday ever. I missed Ginny, but we'd arranged to have a nice, long phone chat once Ben and I reached Papa's house.

"We've done pretty much everything. Shall we go somewhere else and see if this little village has any other things to do?"

"Unless you're up for smoking cigarettes behind buildings, there's nothing," I said.

"Let's do it," he said unenthusiastically. I looked at him and he sighed. "Let's go back, Lottie."

I grinned and pulled up his hand that I held and kissed his knuckles. "Okay," I said. I really loved holding his hand.

His expression was a little softer when he glanced at me, and he started pulling me towards the entrance.

I felt light, happy, so glad to be here in this place at this time with Ben. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted that creepy man from the bus. Rick.

A few seconds later, he saw me and smiled widely, and then he saw Ben, and the smile became a glare. I blinked and shuffled closer to Ben, and when I glanced back, Rick was gone.

And I was worried.